Kirk J. Nahra, JD

Mr. Nahra is a partner with Wilmer Hale in Washington, D.C., were he co-chairs their global Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice. He was formerly a partner with Wiley Rein LLP in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in privacy and information security litigation and counseling, along with a variety of health care and compliance issues and chaired the firm’s Privacy Practice and co-chaired its Health Care Practice. Mr. Nahra assists companies in a wide range of industries in analyzing and implementing the requirements of privacy and security laws across the country and internationally. He provides advice on data breaches, enforcement actions, contract negotiations, business strategy, research and de-identification issues and privacy, data security and cybersecurity compliance. He advises companies in virtually all industries, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups. He also works with insurers and health care industry participants in developing compliance programs and defending against government investigations into their practices.

A long-time member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, he is the editor of Privacy Advisor, the monthly newsletter of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. He is also a founding Board Member of the Privacy Bar Section of the IAPP. He is a Certified Information Privacy Professional and serves on the Advisory Board for the Health Law Reporter, the Privacy and Security Law Report and the Health Care Fraud Report. He served as the Co-Chair of the Confidentiality, Privacy and Security Workgroup, a panel of government and private sector privacy and security experts advising the American Health Information Community (AHIC) on privacy and security issues arising from health information technology. He has held leadership positions with various groups within the American Health Lawyers Association and the American Bar Association Health Law Section.

Mr. Nahra received his law degree from Harvard Law School, cum laude, in 1987. He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in 1984.

Mr. Nahra regularly speaks before a broad variety of audiences, including lawyers, nonlawyers, privacy and data security personnel, medical professionals and others, on topics including privacy, data security, cybersecurity, and overall healthcare issues. He has taught Health Care Privacy and Security at the Washington College of Law at American University since 2016. He will teach a course of The Law of Information Privacy at the Washington College of Law beginning in September 2018. He also has taught privacy-related “mini-courses” at the Case Western Reserve University Law School and the University of Maine Law School, and has lectured on privacy issues at the University of Pennsylvania and Washington University.

Mr. Nahra is an active author and lecturer in the health care, compliance, privacy, information security and anti-fraud areas, with a wide range of publications on these issues.