Prior to Cindy’s current role at Electronic Frontier Foundation, she served as Legal Director as well as its General Counsel. She first became involved with EFF in 1993, when she served as the outside lead attorney in Bernstein v. Dept. of Justice, the successful First Amendment challenge to the U.S. export restrictions on cryptography.
Forbes included Cindy as one of America’s Top 50 Women in Tech (2018). The National Law Journal named her one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America (2013) noting: “[I]f Big Brother is watching, he better look out for Cindy Cohn.” She was also named for “rushing to the barricades wherever freedom and civil liberties are at stake online” (2006), and the National Law Journal named her one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in America (2007). The Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of California awarded her its Intellectual Property Vanguard Award (2010) and the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists awarded her the James Madison Freedom of Information Award (2012).
