Reena R. Bajowala has deep experience with data security, information technology and privacy law issues, and a broad practice including counseling and advice, and litigation. She is a Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT), a Certified Information Privacy Professional – US (CIPP/US) and a Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM). An award-winning practitioner, Reena is a sought-after speaker and presenter on topics such as cybersecurity and incident response. Through a competitive process, she was selected as a 2021-2023 Fellow of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section with the Cyberspace Law Subcommittee.
Clients turn to Reena to investigate, remediate and comply with legal obligations when faced with a data breach, including in business email compromise, ransomware or wire transfer fraud scenarios. She has deep experience with conducting risk assessments, developing privacy and information security compliance programs, and doing proactive planning for potential data security incidents, including drafting incident response plans, communications plans and conducting tabletop exercises. In response to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s increased attention to board responsibilities regarding cybersecurity, she is retained to train public and private company boards of directors on issues of cyber literacy. In addition, Reena helps evaluate legal risks relating to emerging technologies, including Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and drones.
The Department of Labor’s current emphasis on cybersecurity marries Reena’s unique combination of decade-plus Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and benefit plan counseling and litigation experience with her expansive cybersecurity and vendor management practice. Accordingly, she assists benefit plan sponsors with implementing cybersecurity policies and service provider management programs.
Reena also has extensive litigation and trial experience from filing of complaint to settlement or verdict, including over 100 days of first-chair trial experience. She represents buyers and providers of IT services facing issues ranging from billing and performance disputes arising from Master Services Agreements and Service Level Agreements to copyright and licensing disputes pursuant to Software Licensing and SaaS agreements. Reena also protects the interests of companies during software audits.
Because of her broad-based background in complex dispute resolution, Reena is adept at dealing with the intricacies of class, collective and plan-wide litigation in the employment and consumer fraud spaces. She has had substantial and broad experience with lawsuits involving ERISA, representing plan sponsors and service providers in both benefits and fiduciary matters.
Reena co-chairs the Drone Interest Group regulatory & legal subcommittee for leading Chicago tech incubator 1871, and serves on 1871’s Tech Council. She is a member of the Firm’s IMagine idea incubator. She is also a member of the Private Directors Association’s Cybersecurity Initiative and the Chicago Electronic Crimes Task Force. Reena is an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan Law School.
Reena is an advocate for racial equity and access to justice. She serves on Ice Miller’s Racial Justice Task Force. In 2021, she spearheaded the launch of Ice Miller’s Project H.O.O.D. pro bono clinic. She serves as President of the Board of the Albany Park Theater Project (APTP). From 2019-2021, she served by appointment by the Lawyer’s Trust Fund of Illinois as Co-Chair the Illinois Legal Aid Diversity & Inclusion Working Group, whose work culminated in the publication of the March 2021 Legal Aid Diversity and Inclusion Working Group Report. She also serves on the advisory board of Chicago Volunteer Legal Services (CVLS). Her previous board service includes the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI), the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and Apna Ghar. While in law school, she founded the Origins Fellowship at the University of Michigan Law School, which has distributed almost $125,000 to dozens of students dedicated to careers in public interest.
Reena received the "Best Under 40" award from NAPABA, the POW! award from Womenetics and a "Most Powerful and Influential Woman" award from the Illinois Diversity Council. She is a 2013 Fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. She has also been recognized for her pro bono work on human trafficking, fair housing, civil rights and access to justice. In 2018, she received a Distinguished Alumni award from the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) and in 2014 she received the inaugural Corporate Partner Award from the Shriver Center on Poverty Law.
Reena joined the Firm in 2018 after spending almost 13 years as an associate and partner at an AmLaw 100 international law firm based in Chicago.