Celia Uwaekwe is an Associate in the Texas office of Mullen Coughlin’s Incident Response practice. With a professional background in compliance and regulatory analysis, she focuses her practice on providing “Breach Counsel” services to organizations suffering (or those who have suffered) a data privacy and security incident including ransomware attacks, business email compromises, inadvertent disclosures and other unauthorized network intrusions. While generally industry-agnostic, Celia is well-versed in counseling organizations in the financial services and manufacturing and distribution industries, as well as those who are publicly-traded and subject to guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
As “Breach Counsel,” Celia leads the privileged investigation into data privacy and security incidents. In this role, she works closely with external and organizational stakeholders to first squash any ongoing threats, and then to determine the nature and scope of impact on the organization and its data. Throughout this process, she liaises, if applicable, on behalf of her clients with cyber insurance carriers, law enforcement, regulatory agencies and other incident response vendors and stakeholders.
Once the incident is contained, and using evidence secured during a digital forensic investigation, Celia counsels organizations with their legal and regulatory obligations stemming from the incident. Based off of U.S. state and federal statutes, as well as international law if required, Celia identifies the necessary notification and other reporting requirements and effectuates them in accordance with applicable law. She also assists her clients with responding to any regulatory agency follow-up or investigation into the data privacy and security incident.
Celia is a former Law Clerk with Mullen Coughlin, where she gained valuable incident response experience and built strong relationships with cyber insurance carriers and brokers, law enforcement, regulatory agencies and other external incident response stakeholders. Her experience is supplemented by her former role as a Compliance Associate, where she provided legal advice related to the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). She also was a Cybersecurity Compliance Intern with the Boeing Company, conducting legal research and analysis on federal cybersecurity regulations, particularly with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines.
In addition to her J.D. from Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law, she also holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Cyber Law and Data Privacy from Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law. She is licensed to practice in Texas.
Outside of her practice, Celia is a member of Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) and Black Girls in Cyber – non-profit, professional organizations committed to the development, advancement and inclusion of women and women of color in cybersecurity, information technology and other STEM-related fields.