JD Supra Profiles Michelle Reed as “Top Thought Leader”

As part of its series of Q&As with recipients of its Readers’ Choice awards, JD Supra interviewed Akin Gump cybersecurity, privacy and data protection practice co-head Michelle Reed (for more on her recognition, click here).

A few highlights from her interview:

• What she gets from writing: “Some of it is purely collaborative: through our work, we’ve established the relationships that allow us to work with other privacy professionals to understand and interpret the law. We’ve gotten some great feedback from clients on what was helpful and how their businesses have benefited. They also tell us about related issues they would like us to address and analysis they hope we can provide.”
• Success from her writing: “I'm a lawyer, so what do I love more than helping people? I've certainly had clients who have come to me from articles that we've written. They've seen the thought leadership out there, and then they called me and said, ‘I'm struggling with this problem. Can you help me?’ because they saw something that I've written. That is positive feedback, and a big success for us.”
• What makes effective thought leadership: “I think an important part of great thought leadership is identifying what really matters, and it's not always what's trendy – sometimes I read about an issue and realize that it’s is going to have a big impact. Those are the subjects I track. I then work with a great team that helps me decide what we're going to write about.”

To read the full interview, click here.