Jill L. Nissen, Esq.
President & Founder
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Jill Nissen is an accomplished legal and strategic business executive with over 20 years of experience helping companies solve complex legal, business and policy matters. Working in Washington D.C. and in Silicon Valley she has helped to shape key issues of importance to Internet companies, including privacy, online safety, intellectual property and social media.  Jill serves on the Advisory Board of the Future of Privacy Forum and is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).  Because of her expertise, Jill has been personally tapped by industry, NGO's and government to participate in various roundtables, government reviews and high-level policy groups, including, being appointed in 2009 as one of 30 experts to serve a 15-month term to the Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG) established by Congress.  Jill served on the Board of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) from 2008-2010. 

Jill founded Nissen Consulting. P.C. in December 2011. As President & Founder of Nissen Consulting, Jill currently serves as a privacy advisor to ClassDojo, Code.org, Khan Academy and several other education technology companies, helping them navigate the complex legal landscape of student data privacy in the rapidly evolving privacy and education technology space, including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Student Privacy Pledge, and California's Online Personal Information Privacy Act (SOPIPA).  Because of her unique and unparalleled expertise in student data privacy, Jill was selected by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) to serve as a Fellow from 2017-2018 and consultant from 2018-2019, helping lead CZI's education privacy strategy and policy efforts.

Jill previously provided senior level global privacy and product counsel advice to the Salesforce privacy and product teams and the Sojern executive management team, including advising on online, cross-device and mobile advertising and location privacy matters. Jill served as Acting Chief Privacy Officer at Gigya from 2012-2014 where she provided guidance to company executives on global privacy matters, including privacy by design, and acted as a liaison to consumer privacy and online safety organizations.  Jill also served as a Member of the Privacy and Safety Advisory Board of Gigya which she established and includes distinguished privacy and online safety experts from Future of Privacy Forum, Stanford University and ConnectSafely.  Jill spearheaded and helped establish the SocialPrivacy™ Certification Seal at Gigya enabling businesses to verify that they follow approved social network guidelines and industry best practices for collecting and using consumer social data from social networking sites.

Prior to establishing Nissen Consulting, Jill served on the management team at Ning, as V.P. and Chief Policy Officer and as Chief Intellectual Property and Policy Counsel. Jill established and led Ning’s global policy and government relations function, developing strategy, vision, internal and external protocol and innovative best practices for all global policy matters, including privacy, child online safety, DMCA, content regulation and user-generated content (CDA Section 230, libel/defamation) matters. Her role included acting as Chief Privacy Officer where she set company-wide privacy strategy and advised on all national and international privacy matters, including COPPA compliance, product review, privacy policies, data collection and behavioral advertising. Jill also served as Director of Business Affairs for Lucasfilm, providing legal, strategic and business advice to executives and senior management across all Lucasfilm divisions for online and digital initiatives, strategic social media initiatives (including establishing the official Star Wars™ brand on Facebook and YouTube), and acting as the Chief Privacy Officer.  Jill was also the main lawyer for Lucas Online for all matters, including providing business and legal advice around user data collection strategies, the re-launch of www.starwars.com, spearheading business development initiatives, and managing complex contract and licensing negotiations.    

Jill also worked for 7 years as both a Corporate and Technology Transactions Senior Associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Her practice focused on privacy, intellectual property, licensing and commercial transactions, with specialized expertise in Internet, media, entertainment and technology law.  Jill advised clients on new business models, content distribution, content rights issues, music licensing, copyright and DMCA issues, online contracts and e-commerce, privacy issues (including COPPA) and Internet law.  Jill structured and negotiated complex domestic and international technology transactions, including strategic alliances, joint ventures, and other collaboration and partnering arrangements; technology acquisitions and transfers; mergers and acquisitions and asset purchases; outsourcing transactions; and commercial transactions for the development, licensing, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of technology and products.  Jill began her legal career working as a legal assistant at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington D.C. while attending law school at Georgetown University Law Center. 

Jill served on the Board of HandsOn Bay Area, a non-profit that creates, manages and leads volunteer projects that benefit more than 300 Bay Area nonprofit agencies, including Bay Area Food Banks, The Salvation Army, Ronald McDonald House, and the San Mateo County AIDS Program.  

Education

J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 1997
  • Articles Editor of the Law & Policy in International Business Journal
  • Symposium Panel Chair: “Customs Regimes as Barriers to Trade” (1997)
  • Jill L. Nissen, Achieving a Balance Between Trade and the Environment: The Need to Amend the WTO/GATT to Include Multilateral Environmental Agreements, 28 Law & Policy in International Business (1997).
  • Studied abroad in Heidelberg, Germany and Florence, Italy (Summer 1995).

B.A., Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1993 
  • Dean's List
  • Member Kappa Alpha Theta sorority
  • Special Olympics Coach

Memberships

Jill was admitted to the California Bar in 1997.  She is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court in Northern California, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and all California State Courts.   

Jill is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)

E-mail: jill@nissenconsulting.com