Google lawyer Nicole Wong is newest member of CFAC Board

Nicole Wong, Deputy General Counsel of Google, has joined the Board of Directors of the California First Amendment Coalition, the free speech and open-government advocacy group.

An expert on legal issues concerning technology and the internet, Ms. Wong has responsibility at Google for litigation and legal strategies for all Google products. Before joining Google, she was a partner at Perkins Coie, a Seattle-based law firm, where she represented both traditional media companies–including Hearst Corporation, McClatchy Company, The Los Angeles Times, and Walt Disney–as well as “new media” clients Microsoft, Amazon, and Yahoo!.

“We are extremely fortunate to have Nicole joining our Board,” said CFAC President Paul Gullixson. “Her rare combination of legal skills and insight into the way technology-focused media companies actually function will be a great asset to CFAC,” he said.

“Nicole has worked on just about every issue at the intersection of technology and the law, from copyright to libel, First Amendment and privacy,” said Peter Scheer, CFAC’s executive director. “She will be an invaluable guide to CFAC in adapting technology to principles of open-government and free speech.”

In recent months CFAC, based in San Rafael, has both expanded and diversified its Board. In addition to Ms. Wong, new board members include Neil Budde, the head of news operations for Yahoo!, Ginger Moorhouse, publisher and board chairman of the Bakersfield Californian, and Dan Gillmor, founder and Director of the Center for Citizen Media.

Other new Board members include: Dan Day, Managing Editor for the Modesto Bee, Stephen Barnett, First Amendment scholar and professor emeritus at Boalt Hall, and Guylyn Cummins, media law expert and partner at the Sheppard Mullin law firm in San Diego.

Ms. Wong is a frequent speaker and author on issues related to law and technology, including appearances before the US Congress regarding Internet policy. An editor of the Electronic Media and Privacy Law Handbook (2003), she served as co-chair of the Practicing Law Institute’s Internet Law Institute (2001-04) and member of the San Francisco Sunshine Task Force (1997-98).

In addition, she has taught media law as an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law. Ms. Wong received her law degree and a Master’s degree in Journalism from the University of California at Berkeley.