Ronald Sarian
USC Gould School of Law

Having led a unique and notable legal career to date, Ronald N. Sarian currently wears two hats: senior counsel at Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, where he chairs their Digital Workplace and Data Privacy Practice Group and specializes in CCPA/internet law; and general counsel for OilR, an early-stage blockchain cryptocurrency startup.

After spending over two decades as an AV-Preeminent rated Los Angeles business litigator, Sarian was recruited to become general counsel for eHarmony in 2013. There, he provided strategic legal advice to the C-suite and assured global compliance in all areas of data privacy, including GDPR, PECR and COPPA. He implemented robust, best practices cybersecurity measures, including incident response plans, as well as privacy policies, terms of service, safety tips, and disaster recovery plans.

After five productive years at eHarmony, Sarian became general counsel at OilR, where he advises the early-stage startup in areas such as intellectual property, corporate structure, contracts, securities, SEC and FINRA issues, KYC/AML, capital raising and Whitepaper.

As a nationally recognized thought leader, lecturer and panel member in privacy, cybersecurity and information governance, Sarian has served as a keynote speaker and faculty member for ALM Legaltech and CyberSecure, the Silicon Valley Association of General Counsel All Hands Meeting, the World Congress IP Summit, the Innovation Enterprise IP Innovation Forum, and the Consero General Counsel and Legal Operations Forums. His select panel discussions have included Cybersecurity: Bloomberg Big Law Business–West, DLA Piper’s Global Perspectives on Emerging Trends in Cybersecurity Roundtable, the Georgetown Cybersecurity Law Institute, the Peer 150 Cyber Attic at Google Ventures, and the UCLA School of Law, Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy. Sarian’s profile has also been featured in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, The Recorder, Corporate Counsel and Modern Counsel.

Ron has been published over 32 times, including in CIOReview, The Cybersecurity Law Report, the Risk Management Monitor, SHRM and Lexology. His publications have focused on privacy and cybersecurity and include: “So What Does General Counsel Have to Do With Cyber-Security, Anyway?”; “What are ‘Reasonable Security Procedures’ under the CA Consumer Privacy Act?”; “Data Security in a Coronavirus World”; “Californians take another step towards European-style privacy with the CPRA”; and “Ransomware Gone Wild - And What You Need to Do to Protect Your Company, Parts 1 and 2.” He also has four published legal opinions.

Sarian is honored and excited to now be teaching Information Privacy at the USC Gould School of Law.  

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

Bloomberg Government
June 22, 2022
Re: Franita Tolson

Franita Tolson was interviewed about how federal lawsuits from North Carolina, Alabama, and Arkansas test the limits of the Voting Rights Act, the boundaries of state government authority, and the ability of voting rights groups to file racial gerrymandering cases. “These doctrines and approaches in these cases fundamentally reset the rules of the game,” she said. “In 2030 we will live in a completely different world than we lived in in 2020, and 2020 was not favorable to minority voters at all.”

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Robin Craig
March, 2022

"Saltwater Sovereignty: Tribal Marine Management Authority Along the Pacific Coast.” Online Environmental Law Workshop. University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore, MD.

Daniel Klerman
March, 2022

“Comment on Choi, Erickson, & Pritchard, ‘Coalitions among Plaintiffs’ Attorneys in Securities Class Actions’,” Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, Virtual, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Robin Craig
March, 2022

“Who’s on First? The Mind-Blowing Attempt to Conceptualize Deference in the Midst of Decision Delays and Agency Repeals,” J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Symposium for the George Washington University School of Law, Virtual, Washington, D.C.