ECPA Counseling & Litigation
We help online service providers, from startups to the world’s largest, navigate the complex legal and policy issues that arise when regulators, law enforcement, intelligence service, private parties, and others request user data. We help these companies develop global compliance programs, communicate with government agencies, advocate for policy changes, and protect their users’ rights and privacy in court.
Online service providers, including communications providers, social media companies, mobile app providers, artificial intelligence companies, financial technology companies, online marketplaces, and augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) providers receive requests for user data from government and private parties in the United States and around the world. The user data sought ranges from basic subscriber information and communications metadata to the content of communications, the details of financial transactions, and the precise location of the user. These requests often raise novel issues related to the applicable statutory framework, the Fourth Amendment, privacy, free speech, and public safety. They entail both legal and reputational risk for the responding company. Perkins Coie's Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) practice helps global technology leaders and emerging companies respond to, and where appropriate, challenge in court requests for their users' data.
Each year, we help online service providers with thousands of requests for user data. We help clients develop policies, procedures, and technical tooling to receive, assess, and respond to subpoenas, orders, warrants, and other forms of legal process. We engage and negotiate with hundreds of law enforcement officers, regulatory agencies, and civil litigants over the validity or scope of legal process. When necessary to protect our service provider clients and their users, we appear in courts throughout the country and assert their rights arising under the federal Stored Communications Act (SCA), Wiretap Act, Pen Register/Trap and Trace Statute, and All Writs Act; the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution; the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the FISA Amendments Act; and CalECPA and other state laws.
In addition, our team regularly represents clients responding to requests for user data from countries around the world raising complex conflicts of law, international comity, and international human rights issues. Our team uses established relationships with attorneys in more than 100 countries to assist clients in responding to such requests. We also represent clients advocating for changes in U.S., foreign, and international policies applicable to such requests.
Our experienced team of advisers and advocates includes former leaders of the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, legislative aides, and representatives of privacy organizations. We have extensive connections, deep knowledge, and decades of experience.
Our Team
Notice
Before proceeding, please note: If you are not a current client of Perkins Coie, please do not include any information in this e-mail that you or someone else considers to be of a confidential or secret nature. Perkins Coie has no duty to keep confidential any of the information you provide. Neither the transmission nor receipt of your information is considered a request for legal advice, securing or retaining a lawyer. An attorney-client relationship with Perkins Coie or any lawyer at Perkins Coie is not established until and unless Perkins Coie agrees to such a relationship as memorialized in a separate writing.
Notice
Before proceeding, please note: If you are not a current client of Perkins Coie, please do not include any information in this e-mail that you or someone else considers to be of a confidential or secret nature. Perkins Coie has no duty to keep confidential any of the information you provide. Neither the transmission nor receipt of your information is considered a request for legal advice, securing or retaining a lawyer. An attorney-client relationship with Perkins Coie or any lawyer at Perkins Coie is not established until and unless Perkins Coie agrees to such a relationship as memorialized in a separate writing.
Notice
Before proceeding, please note: If you are not a current client of Perkins Coie, please do not include any information in this e-mail that you or someone else considers to be of a confidential or secret nature. Perkins Coie has no duty to keep confidential any of the information you provide. Neither the transmission nor receipt of your information is considered a request for legal advice, securing or retaining a lawyer. An attorney-client relationship with Perkins Coie or any lawyer at Perkins Coie is not established until and unless Perkins Coie agrees to such a relationship as memorialized in a separate writing.
Notice
Before proceeding, please note: If you are not a current client of Perkins Coie, please do not include any information in this e-mail that you or someone else considers to be of a confidential or secret nature. Perkins Coie has no duty to keep confidential any of the information you provide. Neither the transmission nor receipt of your information is considered a request for legal advice, securing or retaining a lawyer. An attorney-client relationship with Perkins Coie or any lawyer at Perkins Coie is not established until and unless Perkins Coie agrees to such a relationship as memorialized in a separate writing.
Notice
Before proceeding, please note: If you are not a current client of Perkins Coie, please do not include any information in this e-mail that you or someone else considers to be of a confidential or secret nature. Perkins Coie has no duty to keep confidential any of the information you provide. Neither the transmission nor receipt of your information is considered a request for legal advice, securing or retaining a lawyer. An attorney-client relationship with Perkins Coie or any lawyer at Perkins Coie is not established until and unless Perkins Coie agrees to such a relationship as memorialized in a separate writing.