Michelle
Ramsden
- Position
- Special Counsel
- Office
- Atlanta
Michelle Ramsden is special counsel in the Corporate Practice Group and a member of the commercial transactions and privacy, data strategy, and artificial intelligence teams.
Michelle is a strategic privacy and technology attorney with more than a decade of experience leading comprehensive privacy, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence (AI) programs for complex organizations. She advises clients on data protection, cybersecurity resilience and incident response, AI governance and risk management, technology procurement and implementation, and regulatory compliance matters. Drawing on her extensive government experience developing national and international frameworks for responsible technology use, Michelle provides practical, business-oriented counsel that enables clients to innovate while managing risk and maintaining compliance with evolving privacy and technology regulations.
A skilled negotiator and consensus-builder, Michelle excels at translating complex technical and legal requirements into practical solutions that enable business objectives while protecting individual privacy and organizational interests. Her unique blend of government policy experience and practical technology implementation knowledge enables her to help clients navigate the evolving landscape of privacy, cybersecurity, and AI regulation while building scalable governance structures that support innovation and growth.
Michelle counsels clients on compliance with US and international data privacy and digital laws and regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act/California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA/CPRA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), as well as on state breach notification laws. She advises on cybersecurity resilience and incident avoidance strategies and leads incident response teams through data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cybersecurity incidents, working with clients to manage the legal, business, compliance, and public relations dimensions of these events. Michelle also provides comprehensive counsel on AI governance, compliance, contracting, enterprise deployment, and risk mitigation, helping clients develop frameworks to responsibly inventory, test, assess, and deploy AI systems while also implementing AI ethics principles and managing the risks associated with emerging technologies.
With significant experience in technology procurement and contracting, Michelle drafts and negotiates complex technology agreements, including software licensing arrangements, cloud computing and SaaS agreements, data processing agreements, and vendor contracts. She develops privacy-by-design strategies for technology implementations, working with product development teams, engineers, and system owners throughout the product life cycle to embed privacy protections and ensure regulatory compliance. Michelle also advises clients on digital policy matters, data governance strategies, and the privacy implications of emerging technologies such as facial recognition and biometric data collection.
Before joining Jones Walker, Michelle served for eight years as senior counsel in the Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties at the US Department of Justice, where she managed privacy and AI compliance for department leadership and divisions with varied missions and structures. In this role, she developed the department’s first AI governance frameworks and served on its inaugural Emerging Technology board, implementing AI ethics principles and responsible governance practices. Michelle led multiple department and government-wide working groups, including the department’s Facial Recognition Technology Working Group, and counseled department and US government leadership on high-stakes policy decisions involving digital policy, domestic and international legislation, and the disclosure of particularly sensitive information.
Michelle’s government experience also includes representing the department in diplomatic delegations and negotiating international agreements such as the Belgrade Ministerial Declaration on Artificial Intelligence. She represented US government interests at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the G7, and the Global Privacy Assembly, and spoke publicly about privacy, AI, and digital policy and the importance of thoughtful governance that encourages innovation and trust in emerging technologies. Her work included drafting the department’s first comprehensive privacy procurement clause to protect individual information and department equities in the event of a breach, providing comprehensive data breach response through major incidents, and serving on the department’s Learning Development Executive Committee.
Earlier in her career, Michelle was selected as a Presidential Management Fellow under the US government’s premier leadership development program, serving in multiple capacities with the US Department of Homeland Security. In this role, she advised federal law enforcement and intelligence teams on the lawful use of emerging investigative tools, conducted in-depth risk assessments on law enforcement operations and information sharing, and supported system development and scaling for nationwide programs. This experience provided her with deep insight into the intersection of technology, privacy, and operational requirements in highly regulated, security-sensitive environments.
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