Tech Talent Spotlight: Jessica Nall

Jess Nall I Partner, Defending Founders, CEOs & High-Tech Companies | Regulatory, Enforcement, Litigation

In the high-stakes world of emerging technology, where innovation and regulation often collide, Jess Nall emerges as a symbol of hope for CEOs, founders, and high-tech companies. With over two decades of experience spearheading a technology law practice focused on defending high-profile tech founders and executives, she has become the go-to defender for some of the most complex and high-profile cases in the industry. From steering the first Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement action involving AI misrepresentations to representing CISOs in major cybersecurity breaches, Jess’s career reads like a blueprint for success. Her expertise spans a wide range of cutting-edge issues, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, economic espionage, and cryptocurrency, making her an invaluable asset to the Baker McKenzie defence team. 

Whether you’re a startup founder with a revolutionizing idea or a seasoned CEO manoeuvring a regulatory storm, Jess is the ally you want when litigation, government enforcement, or reputational threats emerge. Her impressive track record of defending innovators and shaping the legal landscape of the tech industry truly makes her stand out in our Tech Talent Spotlight. 

Could you please share insights into your background and elaborate on your journey?

I’ve been practicing law at the intersection of technology and government enforcement for 23 years, ever since graduating from Harvard Law School. Throughout my career, I’ve represented all kinds of founders and innovators in cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, algorithmic models, and, most recently, AI. Whenever the government takes issue with someone’s conduct, private parties raise threats to reputation or in litigation, or when major incident occurs, like a massive data breach, I jump in to learn the intricacies of the tech in question and get to work. It’s given me the opportunity to hang out with some of the smartest minds of our generation while fighting back against government overreach and helping steer high-profile and brilliant people safely through some of the most troubling periods of their lives. 

What inspired you to pursue a career in law, particularly focusing on defending technology leaders and companies?

My passion for tech partly stems from being born and raised in the Bay Area, where innovation is built into the fundamental fabric of life.  My dad got us our first home computer when I was 6 back in the 1980s, and I immediately saw how amazing technology could be. We started with the magic of near-instant communication with people from far away over “bulletin board systems,” which evolved into the Internet. Being part of the San Francisco Bay Area tech community from that young age, I’ve witnessed the rise of the Internet, the Dotcom boom and bust, the mobile revolution, the rise of social media, and today’s AI boom, which began in the 2010s and has been exponentially accelerating ever since. 

Being at the epicentre of all this has been incredibly exciting.  I’m a huge technology fan, especially when it comes to AI.  As a global society, we are on the precipice of an amazing paradigm shift with AI – as big as the invention of the wheel, fire, or electricity.  To keep pace with this incredible technology and its implications, I’m obtaining a Masters in Law focusing on AI at Berkeley Law, taught by some of the Bay Area’s top technologists and researchers.  It’s one of the first such programs offered by any US law school.  I love learning and absorbing as much information as possible about new technologies, both for my own edification and to help me as an advocate and trusted advisor for tech founders and their companies. 

A couple of years ago, after I defended my first AI founder against a novel Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, I started using AI tools to generate ideas and outline articles. However, I quickly realized that AI-generated content is often easily recognizable and can affect credibility. So now, I use LLM-based models for ideation, but I make sure to include my own original content and work product to avoid sounding insincere. It’s a whole new way to get to the best possible expression of our thoughts – a whole new way of communicating – I find that really fascinating. 

Interestingly, there’s a push across many industries like law and business to incorporate AI tools to a greater extent than ever. The argument is that in the future, we’ll be judged on the quality of our end product, not how we got there. Everyone will be assumed to be using these tools, and if you’re not, you’ll probably be behind the curve. While most schools still have traditional policies against AI use, I hope that by the time my kids are of age, there will be more openness to using these tools responsibly and focusing instead on the quality of the final output. 

What are some of the most significant challenges you’ve faced when defending innovators involved in new technology, such as AI and Cybersecurity, against legal threats, and how have you overcome them?

The biggest challenge is always trying to meet the US government where it is. Just like everyone in the industry, government lawyers are trying to make their name in AI, cyber, or whatever the latest hot topic is, by looking for hot-button tech issues to investigate, regulate, and litigate about.  That almost always involves the government dragging my founders and executive clients through some really difficult experiences for them.  However, government lawyers don’t usually come from a position of deep technological expertise, though that is changing to some extent now. In my career so far, a major challenge has been breaking down complex tech concepts for the government and explaining what’s really going on in a way that alleviates concerns about wrongdoing or recklessness. 

It's about developing and expressing narratives that help my clients communicate effectively. This is especially crucial now with AI, as there’s a lot of fear from the government’s perspective. That’s why we’re seeing discussion and even passage of some pretty draconian regulations, especially in Europe and some U.S. states.  Many people are worried and afraid of AI. 

What often happens is the application of very old statutes, like securities fraud laws from the 1930s, to these emerging tech cases. This can be very challenging because while technically you can apply the bare words of the statute, whoever wrote it back then had no idea what we’d be doing in 2025. To really help this next wave of innovation flourish, regulation (and all the attendant enforcement that comes with it) should be about finding a balance between helping innovation thrive and preventing the truly bad actors from weaponizing new tools. 

How is AI transforming cybersecurity, and what legal implications does this transformation entail for businesses?

AI is obviously a powerful tool in the hands of threat actors, especially for attacks like business email compromise, i.e., through phishing.  It’s being used to quickly generate sophisticated spearphishing attempts that are much harder to detect than in the past. Previously, misspelling or awkward phrasing would be a tip-off, but now it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between legitimate and phishing emails. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg. AI tools are enhancing the efficiency of attacks, from credential stuffing to finding new ways to breach systems.  On the flip side, for defense, it’s imperative that we use AI defensively to enhance cybersecurity and always find new ways to head off some of these greater harms. It’s a case of fighting fire with fire – the cybersecurity arms race between the black hat and the security team is only speeding up and getting more intense as time goes on. 

Increasingly sophisticated deepfakes are here to stay.  A notable example that’s been discussed happened in APAC, where attackers used deepfake technology to impersonate a company’s CEO, requesting an urgent, confidential wire transfer for a large sum. The deepfake was convincing enough that the money was actually wired. 

This is where we need to focus our efforts on developing AI tools for defense. We need sophisticated filters that can detect subtle manipulations in email addresses, like hidden characters or slight alterations that might fool the human eye. Without these advanced detection methods, it is becoming nearly impossible to differentiate between real emails and highly sophisticated phishing attempts. The attackers are now capable of creating incredibly convincing fakes using these AI tools, so our defenses need to evolve accordingly. 

What are some of the main barriers you’ve encountered in advancing gender equality within the legal field, and how have you addressed these challenges?

Even well over 20 years since I left law school, we’re still not seeing the level of gender equality we should in law firms and in the boardrooms and C-suite levels of companies.  Sadly, the progress has been incremental at best. It’s particularly challenging because my best clients are typically CEOs, CFOs, founders, and board members, who tend to be men. When they’re facing existential threats like government or regulatory enforcement, they often don’t immediately think a woman would be the right person to save them. 

However, when I break through that initial barrier, I always do an excellent job for them. The government tends to be more gender diverse; juries are also typically more diverse.  So, using my skills as a female lawyer has been highly effective for my clients and great for me. The challenge lies in overcoming the initial perception and barriers created by gender inequality.  The results after that are phenomenal.

People aren’t used to seeing a woman in the highest levels or as first chair, but I’ve been involved in many amazing organizations that help raise visibility and amplify our accomplishments as women. I won’t stop fighting until we reach parity, which I hope happens in our professional lives. 

It goes without saying that the tech world in the Bay Area, where I live, is heavily male-dominated. For instance, only 1% of venture capital money goes to female-founded businesses. There’s a perception that somehow a man will know better or do better, which simply isn’t true. In fact, I believe we have advantages as women in areas like EQ and soft skills. My brain can certainly wrap itself around the tech just as easily as a man can. It’s about breaking through these perceptions and proving our capabilities. 

Can you give us a little bit of why you founded the SF Bay Area’s Chapter of Women’s White Collar Defense Association (WWCDA) and the Women In Investigations Network (WIIN)?  What motivated you and what impact they're having now? 

I was one of the founders of the Women’s White Collar Defense Association in San Francisco back in 2010 – we’re set to celebrate our 15^th anniversary this June. The larger organization has grown tremendously, from about 15 women when I first joined back in the early 2000s to 4,500 women in 50 chapters globally. It’s an organization dedicated to women lawyers who practice in opposing the government on behalf of businesses and professionals.

This network has been incredibly valuable. It serves as a referral network that I can reach out to for expertise anywhere in the world. Similarly, if someone needs my skills or has questions about cybersecurity or AI government investigations, I am one of the ones they call. It’s been instrumental in raising our collective power and profile in the field. 

In 2020, I also founded the Women In Investigations Network (WIIN), which is a similar networking and educational entity for the top women in investigations and compliance within companies.  We help them meet each other for benchmarking and general professional support.  We also provide cutting-edge educational opportunities to help them advance within their companies.

I’ve also been involved in several other organizations. Recently, I’ve been very active with How Women Lead, which is a fantastic organization focused on getting women on corporate boards. These types of advancement organizations will continue to be crucial moving forward to help balance the scales and ensure women have a seat at the table in boardrooms. It’s about making sure we have the recognition and tools we should have for the betterment of our world. 

These organizations are vital in helping to raise visibility for women in leadership roles, creating networks of support, and working towards gender parity in high-level decision-making positions. 

How do you envision the future of AI and cybersecurity evolving over the next decade, and what major changes do you anticipate in industries like law, healthcare, finance, and transportation?

I’m incredibly excited for the future.  We’re going to see major changes across every industry.  This is already happening rapidly in healthcare and transportation. Eventually, every sector is going to be transformed by the breakthroughs we’re just starting to witness, and the pace of change is accelerating exponentially. 

I’m especially enthusiastic about healthcare. We’re already seeing AI-driven advancements in predicting the likelihood of future diseases, which opens up new possibilities for preventative care. There are exciting developments at the molecular level, like gene editing. I’m hopeful that in the next 10 to 20 years, we’ll see a world that’s remarkably better in terms of health outcomes. 

We’re likely to see increases in longevity and all kinds of other exciting breakthroughs. I’m obviously very hopeful about this because I love life and don’t want it to end too early. I want to keep on living, breaking through barriers, and staying happy and healthy for as long as possible – and I want to see everyone else in the world have that opportunity, too.

In transportation, we’re already seeing progress with self-driving cars and robotaxis coming into play and Tesla figuring out how to charge cars wirelessly. The future is awesome, and I’m genuinely excited about what’s to come. These advancements have the potential to dramatically improve our quality of life and solve some of the biggest challenges we face as a society – including tackling some of the existential threats to our global survival, such as climate change. 

How do you mentor and support women in law, particularly those interested in technology-related legal practices?

I really get a lot out of mentoring. I’ve received great mentoring and sponsorship throughout my own career, and I’m passionate about paying it forward. Sponsorship is also something I enjoy in furtherance of the collective goal of raising women to our highest potential – it’s like the other side of the mentorship coin – it’s when someone puts themselves on the line for you, recommending you for a job or other opportunities. 

I regularly meet with a number of women to counsel them, sharing insights into how I got where I am and offering ideas for their advancement. I really try to push for visibility, education, and overcoming societal conditioning that often makes us question ourselves and stay quiet. My advice tends to be the opposite of the norm; I say: be loud, be visible, engage with the world, publish, speak, and present. It’s about breaking down barriers like imposter syndrome. I want to help people get the tools to overcome that because if the world is already trying to push you down, you shouldn’t push yourself down further. 

Sometimes, when I’m feeling down on myself, I do a little runway walk. I just strut around for a minute, pretending I’m the most powerful, confident, fabulous woman on the planet. It can be helpful to hear positive affirmations from others, too. I have some great women in my peer group and other professionals I’ve known for a long time. Sometimes, we just need to get together and be that mirror for each other, reminding each other how amazing we are and how many great things we’ve accomplished. 

Coming out of these interactions feeling uplifted and then applying that energy to the world – I think that’s really important. It’s about building each other up and creating a supportive network that empowers us all to achieve our full potential. 

How do you believe the legal culture can be further transformed to support gender equality, and what role do you see yourself playing in this transformation?

I see myself playing a role in the transformation of the legal profession by embracing and getting ahead of the technological paradigm shift that is still in its infancy when it comes to the law.  But AI is coming for law in a big way – the tidal wave of change is going to hit and I want to be surfing on it and not drowned by it.  The law is one of the oldest professions, and the legal industry hasn’t really changed much in hundreds of years since it was essentially invented in England. We’re still largely operating on a straight billable hour model, with partners compensated based on the revenue they bring in for each six-minute increment of a lawyer’s time. 

This system tends to create a lot of competition over who gets credit for what revenue, and men often come out on top because they’re overwhelmingly in positions of power within law firms.  One of the truly transformational things AI will do is to break this model.  And because this compensation structure underlines a lot of gender inequality we see in the legal profession, we will hopefully see true change in the terrible gender dynamics that permeate today.

When we are all of a sudden able to do fundamental legal tasks, such as data analysis, organization, ideation, drafting, etc., that used to take hours in a tiny fraction of a minute, the billable hour model will have to change.  We could consider many alternative approaches for how clients and lawyers will interact with each other financially, such as project-based or outcome-based systems.  The fundamental human elements of judgment, prediction, EQ, and reasoning will be all that’s left once the machines are fully harnessed to pull the rest of the wagon.   And since women excel at these skills, I hope AI can help take the cutthroat compensation fight out of the equation.  Becoming and staying technologically savvy and riding the trends to the new paradigm will prevent women from constantly losing compensation and, thus, the power battle. 

By reimagining how we structure compensation and credit in law firms, we can create a more equitable environment that allows talent to rise regardless of gender or ethnic diversity. This could be a key step in addressing the persistent gender and diversity imbalance at the highest levels of the legal profession. 

What advice would you give to young women aspiring to enter the legal profession, especially those who wish to specialize in technology and cybersecurity?

For someone looking to specialize in tech law, I’d say the most important thing is to be curious and constantly learning. Absorb as much information as possible, and don’t ever talk yourself out of anything. Just got for it. 

I really believe in being unabashedly loud, taking up space in the room, and pursuing what interests you. At the end of the day, you’re not going to be happy if you have a job in an area of law that doesn’t excite you. You have to get out of bed every day and be excited about what you’re doing. 

So, find that thing, whatever it is that truly interests you, and then just follow it until you can’t follow it anymore.  And then pivot to the next thing that interests you.  Don’t let self-doubt or societal expectations hold you back. Be visible, be bold and chase your passion. 

In tech law, things are constantly evolving, so that curiosity and willingness to learn will serve you well. Don’t be afraid to dive into new areas or tackle complex challenges. Remember, your unique perspective and experiences, your judgment and your strategic thinking are what is going to be most valuable in the field for years to come. 

Just go for it. Pursue your interests with enthusiasm and determination. That’s how you’ll find fulfilment in your career and make a real impact in the tech law space and in the brave new world that’s before us. 

It was a pleasure to interview Jess Nall and gain insights into her impressive career and her vision for the future of technology law. Her passion for mentorship and dedication to empowering women in the legal profession is truly inspiring. As she embarks on her journey to obtain a Master’s degree in AI, Franklin Fitch wishes her the best of luck. With her expertise and commitment to innovation, there’s no doubt she will continue to make a significant impact in the field. We look forward to seeing all the great things she will continue to accomplish.