Press Release
Press Release
Press Contacts: Erik Cummins, Matt Hyams, Olivia Thomas
05.23.23
Anthony “Tony” Phillips, a former Director and Associate General Counsel for Integrity at Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly Facebook, Inc.), has joined Pillsbury as a partner in the firm’s Washington, DC office. He is the latest addition to Pillsbury’s prestigious Technology Industry practice, which is consistently ranked among the most active practices in the world. Phillips brings experience as a former trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section. He began his career as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) Officer—a military lawyer—in the U.S. Air Force.
At Meta, Phillips led a legal team working to understand and calibrate integrity-related legal risks and helping technical teams design and implement measures to mitigate those risks. Phillips will concentrate his practice at Pillsbury primarily on tech compliance and investigations—trust and safety, data protection, and related matters—and high-stakes business litigation. Phillips’ first-hand experience and familiarity navigating complex digital trust and safety and data protection issues will provide clients across industries with critical guidance and in-house perspective as they encounter emerging compliance demands, regulatory and other internal investigations and related disputes.
“Above and beyond Tony’s first-rate business litigation skills, every company collecting or working with consumer data, or allowing users to post content on their platform, is going to be confronted with questions of digital trust and safety,” said Deborah Baum, Pillsbury’s Global Head of Litigation. “Tony’s nuanced knowledge and practical experience in digital trust and safety position him perfectly to meet that need. For years, Tony has been at the forefront of this area, which lies at a critical nexus between technology and the law, and we’re excited for him to keep pushing this emerging field forward here at Pillsbury.”
Phillips said he was attracted to Pillsbury’s “deep bench in data privacy and cybersecurity, high-stakes investigations, and complex commercial litigation—risk areas that require careful consideration when thinking through issues of digital trust and safety.”
Phillips added, “I also have witnessed the impressive additions to Pillsbury’s litigation practice in recent months, including DOJ veteran and former U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue and former Justice Rolando Acosta in New York; former federal prosecutor and top DOJ official Pat Hovakimian in Washington, DC; litigators Patrick Hammon and Adam Goldberg in the Bay Area; former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ronald Cheng and Kimberly Jaimez in Los Angeles; and my very good friend and former colleague Willie Wood in Houston. I’m excited to be part of this incredible team.”
In addition to his roles at Meta and in private practice, Phillips led the corporate ethics and compliance team at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. While in the JAG corps, Phillips was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq to support Operation Iraqi Freedom and was honored with a Defense Meritorious Service Medal for his service leading major crimes investigations there. An Eagle Scout, Phillips is the Deputy Chair-Operations for the Washington, DC District of the Boy Scouts of America; serves on the Leadership Council of Gifts for the Homeless; and is a member of the NationSwell Council.
Pillsbury’s award-winning team of more than 200 litigators works with clients around the world to help them successfully resolve disputes, in trial and out of court, at home and in jurisdictions around the globe. The firm has garnered dozens of top-tier recognitions as a result of its exceptional litigation prowess and was most recently recognized as one of the most feared law firms to come up against in litigation by BTI Consulting Group.
Pillsbury’s global Technology Industry team brings together more than 300 sector-focused lawyers to meet the progressive needs of innovators, entrepreneurs and disruptors around the world. Regularly ranked among the top six most active law firms in the world for VC financings, the firm has advised on over $20 billion in venture financing, as well as completed nearly 100 IPOs and more than $400 billion in M&A transactions. Pillsbury lawyers have led in excess of 1,000 strategic outsourcing and technology transactions worth more than half a trillion dollars, filed approximately 30,000 technology company patents, and regularly represents sector clients in business-critical litigations, arbitrations and government investigations.