Written by: Rebekah Roux
A willingness to take chances, hard work, a passion for technology, and adaptability have shaped Syracuse University College of Law and Law Review alumnus Kevin Minsky’s career. Kevin’s legal career started with an interest in politics that led Kevin to pursue a degree in political science at the University of Washington. This interest quickly evolved into an internship in the Washington State Legislature that introduced him to Jay Inslee, then a young legislator, who would dramatically impact Kevin’s life. After Kevin’s internship, Jay asked Kevin to help run his first congressional campaign. Jay won the race, and Kevin took the leap and moved to Washington DC as a legislative aide.
While working in Congress, Kevin had the first of many fortuitous experiences that would shape his career: Congress at the time was debating a major update to the U.S. Communications Act, and Kevin – with his passion for technology – advised Inslee on the complexities of the first major update to U.S. telecom legislation since 1934. While working on Capitol Hill, Minsky also saw firsthand the value of a legal degree held by key advisors on House and Senate Committees. He credits his experience on Capitol Hill for affirming his decision to attend law school. As a first-generation law student, Kevin chose Syracuse because of its well-known program in communications law and many notable Syracuse alumni in leadership roles in government and industry.
During his time at Syracuse, Kevin served as the Lead Article Editor of the Syracuse Law Review and continued his interest in technology and telecommunications law. His Law Review note, “The Constitutionality and Policy Ramifications of the Violent Programming Rating Provision in the Telecommunications Act of 1996,” was selected for publication. Additionally, he received a Certificate from the Law School’s innovative Technology Transfer Program led by former Professor Ted Hagelin and spent his second and third years as a Research Assistant for Communications Law Professor Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke. That latter role was hugely influential on Minsky’s career path, and a key reason he decided to seek an early career as a telecom attorney in big law.
Kevin also fondly recalls moments with his classmates and professors at Syracuse who were supportive and kind and an important reason Kevin was able to adapt and thrive despite all the challenges faced by a first-year law student moving to a new city. Whether it was study groups in the first-year Law Firm class or a conversation with a professor during office hours, these experiences gave Kevin a passion and love for Syracuse that he has shown through volunteer work that includes serving on the SULAA Alumni Board, helping organize speaking events in the DC area for Syracuse graduates and law students, and speaking at Syracuse on legal career development to rising 2Ls and 3Ls.
After graduating Syracuse summa cum laude, Kevin joined Swidler & Berlin, LLP, in Washington D.C., where he represented fast-growing telecommunications start-up companies. Ironically, the same communications law Kevin had advised on prior to law school contributed to the rapid growth of these companies. But Minsky’s career would shortly take a different direction. Motivated by the events of September 11th, Kevin felt a strong sense of duty to pursue an active role in national security and accepted a role as Assistant General Counsel at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In this role, Kevin advised on challenges related to gaps in lawful electronic surveillance by law enforcement of emerging technologies used by terrorists and criminals. He described his time in the FBI as one of the most collaborative periods of his legal career where he worked with professionals from a variety of backgrounds to develop new, innovative legal approaches to problems. His time at the FBI was also personally rewarding: it was there that Kevin met his future wife, who would join him on the many adventures ahead.
Following his success in this role, Kevin once again sought new opportunities to spearhead technological innovation. He returned to the private sector, where he worked as Senior Counsel at Microsoft advising on the launches of SaaS/cloud services, including Azure and Office 365. After nearly eight years at Microsoft and the Great Recession impacting both the technology and legal sectors, Kevin and his family made the decision to change again: this time returning to Washington DC where he was recruited to work at Booz Allen as Associate General Counsel to its cybersecurity business.
This was a challenging time for attorneys with reduced private sector and government opportunities, but as it turned out the business of “cybercrime” started exploding in 2015 with the first ransomware and other malicious cyber-attacks against leading companies, including Home Depot and Target, and government agencies. Kevin leaned into this role, and with the rapid number of cybersecurity software and cloud services products Booz Allen was building, Kevin was promoted to Chief Product Counsel. In that role, he helped build Booz Allen’s new product offering compliance program enabling the company to rapidly scale and release products to the marketplace.
At that time, Kevin took on a volunteer leadership position at the Association of Corporate Counsel for the National Capital Region and helped ACC NCR develop an attorney leadership program for in-house counsel seeking to take their careers to the next level. Kevin applied and was accepted to the program during its inaugural year, and his experience there helped his career evolve again. Kevin decided to return to big tech and focus on roles as Product Counsel helping tech companies build and release new software and cloud products. Aided by the expansion of remote work during the pandemic, he was able to pursue these new opportunities without relocating. These roles included some of the world’s leading technology companies, including Salesforce, Docusign, Meta, and CrowdStrike.
Today, Kevin serves in advisory Product Counsel roles to Airbnb and Ahold where his core focus is AI governance, data privacy, global regulatory compliance, contract and transactional matters, and legislative/government affairs. Kevin also volunteers through the D.C. Bar Pro Bono program, and as a former Advisory Committee Member to the DC Bar Pro Bono Center, believes that pro bono work provides some of the best training and most meaningful work that an attorney can pursue.
To those students still at Syracuse or early in their careers, Kevin’s advice is both simple and hard: stretch and take chances, keep learning and evolving, and above all work hard and don’t give up on your dreams. The journey may be challenging, but for Kevin, it has clearly been worth it.