PBN Leaders & Achievers 2024 Awards
Linn Foster Freedman | Robinson & Cole LLP | Partner and cybersecurity chair
LINN FOSTER FREEDMAN KNEW she wanted to be a lawyer since the seventh grade. And eventually turned that dream into a reality.
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After earning her bachelor’s degree from Tulane University and a law degree from the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, Freedman practiced maritime law for five years before moving to Rhode Island to continue her career. While serving as deputy chief of the R.I. Attorney General’s Office’s Civil Division, Freedman was exposed to data privacy issues, an area that really piqued her interest and passion.
Freedman, now a partner at Robinson & Cole LLP in Providence, has specialized in data privacy and cybersecurity ever since. At the firm, she also serves as a member of Robinson & Cole’s business litigation group and as chair of the firm’s data privacy and cybersecurity and artificial intelligence teams.
There, she focuses on data privacy and security law, cybersecurity and complex litigation, including technology agreements, responses to security incidents and data breaches, as well as assisting clients with regulatory investigations and enforcement actions.
“I have been working in this field a long time and have responded to many cybersecurity attacks for clients,” Freedman said. “Unfortunately, the situation is getting worse and these attacks are getting costlier and more devastating to companies. There is no quick fix and companies now are in a reactive mode instead of a proactive and preventative mode. It is hard to witness the difficulty these attacks are causing.”
Recently, Freedman has been dealing with several ransomware attacks for clients that are in different stages of response and remediation. She says her goal is to do everything she can to get companies back up and running and to relieve the stress and chaos.
Freedman also recalled one business client calling her his “guardian angel” after recovering his operations after a ransomware attack.
“I am, in general, a passionate person and put my all into whatever I do,” Freedman said. “I love being a cybersecurity lawyer because it is exciting, interesting, new, constantly changing and a very challenging area of law. I love being able to provide clients with strategy around cybersecurity and compliance and get a lot of satisfaction with giving clients practical strategies to mitigate risk to their organizations.”
