We are delighted that Anthony M. Shults has rejoined Cleary Gottlieb as a senior attorney from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he served as acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy and as Attorney-Advisor in the National Security Division. He is based in our New York office and will focus on cybersecurity, data privacy, and emerging technologies, as well as securities, appellate, and complex commercial litigation.
Before leaving for the Department of Justice, Anthony was a highly regarded Cleary associate. During his government service, he worked on emerging areas of law and regulation that are critically important to clients who are facing complex cybersecurity issues and a continually evolving regulatory and enforcement landscape. His return further strengthens our exceptional cybersecurity and data privacy and litigation practices.
Anthony originally joined Cleary as an associate in 2011 and left to join DOJ in 2017. At DOJ, he coordinated major cybersecurity and data privacy initiatives alongside officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Commerce, the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Trade Commission, and the White House. He also played a key role in developing DOJ policies on cryptocurrency and blockchain, encryption, drones, and artificial intelligence. Anthony served as Staff Director for the Attorney General’s Cyber Digital Task Force, which developed DOJ’s Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework, and as Co-Chair of the Department’s Artificial Intelligence Community of Interest. In 2019, Anthony was presented with the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, one of the Department’s highest honors.
“We’re very excited that Anthony has rejoined Cleary. His long history with the firm and his extensive DOJ work on high-profile cyber and emerging technologies issues will make him an invaluable asset to our team and our clients,” said Cleary partner Jonathan Kolodner, who is the former head of the unit overseeing cybersecurity for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Anthony served as a law clerk for the Hon. Danny J. Boggs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 2014 to 2015. He received a J.D., magna cum laude, from New York University School of Law and a B.A., summa cum laude, from Binghamton University.