Shannon Togawa Mercer advises clients on matters related to domestic and international cybersecurity, privacy, and data protection laws. She works closely with clients on incident preparedness, helping companies navigate increasingly dynamic regulatory and threat environments. Having begun her practice in London, she uses her experience across jurisdictions to rationalize and clarify international risk and regulatory obligations. Ms. Mercer’s breadth of experience directly benefits her clients who are looking to establish or improve their privacy and cybersecurity compliance programs through practical and effective strategies. 

Ms. Mercer has represented clients of all sizes and in numerous sectors through a wide range of cybersecurity incidents, including complex cyber extortion and ransomware incidents. She has extensive experience managing data breach response activities and investigations, including overseeing privileged forensic work and data breach notification efforts in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, among other jurisdictions. As part of her incident response and regulatory investigations work, Ms. Mercer represents clients in communications with law enforcement and before state and federal regulators. Ms. Mercer’s experience also includes negotiating privacy and data protection provisions in transactional documents and drafting privacy policies and other disclosures.

Ms. Mercer has written extensively on data protection, privacy, cybersecurity, and public policy. Her written work has been featured in various publications, including the American Journal of International Law Unbound, the German Yearbook of International Law,  Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, Lawfare, and Foreign Policy. Ms. Mercer was a contributing editor to The Guide to Cyber Investigations – 3rd Edition published in 2023. 

She joined WilmerHale from the London location of a large global law firm, beginning her career with a focus on the data protection and cybersecurity aspects of international transactions. She previously worked as a national security, technology and law associate for the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She also served as the managing editor of the prominent US national security blog, Lawfare. 

During law school, Ms. Mercer completed legal internships for the US Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff; the United States Trade Representative, Office of the General Counsel; and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Mercer was an associate at a management consulting firm and a management associate in the research department and the department of corporate counsel at the world’s largest hedge fund.

Ms. Mercer is a member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Washington DC.