Attorney

Job Description

Cybersecurity & Privacy Attorney | Charlotte, NC (hybrid, some remote) | $150,000 to $350,000

When a company gets breached, the first call doesn’t go to IT. It goes to a lawyer.

If you’ve taken that call and found you’re good at it, keep reading.

Who’s writing this

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• I’m Clark Pollins, an attorney recruiter at Distinct Recruitment. I’m not the firm.
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• Several firms with Charlotte offices are hiring cyber and data privacy attorneys at the same time.
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• Two are national firms with dedicated incident response teams. One is a Charlotte headquartered firm with a technology practice. Others are building out data breach litigation benches.
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• Usually you wait for one seat to open. Right now you get to compare.
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Pick your lane

Incident response

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• You’ve guided clients through ransomware and business email compromise, from the first call to the closed file.
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• You’ve worked alongside forensics firms under privilege, and you know why that structure matters.
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• You can map notification duties across state breach laws, HIPAA, GLBA and the regulators without starting from scratch every time.
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• Project attorney seats suit 1 to 3 years of experience, and one is open to remote work.
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• Associate seats suit 4 to 6 years.
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Data breach and privacy litigation

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• You’ve defended data breach class actions: standing fights at the motion to dismiss stage, MDLs, settlement structures.
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• Tracking pixel, wiretap or biometric privacy claims on your résumé will get noticed.
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• Associate seats want five or more years. There’s a counsel seat for 12 or more.
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Privacy advisory and transactional

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• You’ve run privacy diligence on M&A deals and negotiated DPAs, vendor contracts and cross border data transfers.
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• You know CCPA and the other state privacy laws, HIPAA, GLBA and the NYDFS cybersecurity rules well enough to advise without a script.
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• AI governance work is a plus.
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• Four or more years of real data protection work. Senior roles want five or more.
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What gets you through the door

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• Active bar admission. North Carolina admission helps, and some firms will consider other admissions.
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• Law firm experience in one of the lanes above. Government, regulator or in house privacy counsel experience also counts for some seats.
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• You write clearly when everyone else is panicking.
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What gets you a better offer

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• CIPP/US, CIPM or similar certifications.
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• Technical fluency. You can read a forensic report without needing a translator.
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• Financial services experience. Charlotte is a banking town, and regulated clients tend to show up in this work.
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• Relationships with cyber insurers or breach panels. Carriers send a lot of incident response work to panel counsel, so this is worth real money.
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The numbers

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• The range is wide because these firms are hiring across levels.
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• Project attorney seats start around $150,000.
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• Senior associate and counsel seats go up to $350,000.
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How you’d work

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• Hybrid or remote is a genuine choice at several of these firms from day one.
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• You pick the platform: a national cyber practice, or a firm with deep Charlotte roots.
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How I’ll work with you

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• One call. Tell me your lane and what you want next.
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• I’ll tell you which of these firms fits you and which doesn’t.
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• Nothing goes to any firm without your say-so. Fully confidential.
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Rather talk it through before you send anything? Call me, Clark Pollins at Distinct Recruitment, on View phone number on ziprecruiter.com, email View email address on ziprecruiter.com, or find me on LinkedIn at -pollins-039488299.