May 25, 2017
Natasha G. Kohne
See more on Natasha G. KohneAkin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP San Francisco
Kohne's practice as a litigation partner at Akin Gump in San Francisco encompasses the kind of international work that crosses borders and into areas with little or no legal precedent.
She leads the cybersecurity and data privacy practice for the firm and handles significant international cross-border cases including litigation, arbitration and investigations. Many of her cases require grappling with novel legal concepts.
"I get extremely hard cases, where clients are essentially asking questions that no one person has the answer to," Kohne said.
Typical of her practice, Kohne handled a case in the International Court of Dispute Resolution as lead counsel on behalf of six clients against the regulatory body that is responsible for internet domain names, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN. The case regarded an application for the use of a sensitive generic top level domain name or gTLD.
Kohne won the case for her clients, convincing the arbitrators over the course of two years to prohibit the application from proceeding and setting a precedent for a still nascent area of digital law.
"We had to really forge our own path," Kohne said. "This is a very new process, there's not that many gTLD cases out there."
Perhaps the most sensitive area of Kohne's practice is as the head of firm's cybersecurity and data privacy practice. "It's a practice group that wasn't around a few years ago," she said. "It goes with the very cutting-edge issues that the legal industry is grappling with."
On top of it all, Kohne serves as one of twelve members of the management committee for the firm, handling strategy, finances and internal governance issues. Kohne also launched the firm's Abu Dhabi office and aided in launching an office in Dubai. "I think I'm my best when I'm dealing with foreign cultures," Kohne said.
While Kohne's practice is wide-ranging, she summed it up simply, "Oftentimes, I'm really a problem solver," Kohne said. "It's my job to...find little answers in different corners and put them all together and come up with a solution for the client."
- Chase DiFeliciantonio
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