Laurence E. Rothenberg

Laurence E. “Larry” Rothenberg is the Chief Privacy and Civil Liberties Officer (CPCLO) of the United States Department of Justice.

The CPCLO is responsible for ensuring the Department’s compliance with the laws, regulations, and policies designed to protect individual privacy and for ensuring that concerns about privacy and civil liberties are appropriately considered in the development and implementation of laws, regulations, and policies related to the Department’s mission. The Department of Justice Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties, which consists of a team of specialized attorneys and privacy professionals, supports the CPCLO in performing these duties. 

Prior to becoming the CPCLO, Mr. Rothenberg served as the counselor to a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) for several years.  He participated in PCLOB’s investigations of Intelligence Community (IC) activities authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, IC compliance with Executive Order 14086, Enhancing Safeguards for U.S. Signals Intelligence Activities, operation of the Terrorist Watchlist by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the use of facial recognition technology by the Transportation Security Administration, among other matters.  Before working at PCLOB, Mr. Rothenberg was a senior official in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice for almost 20 years.  He led policy initiatives to ensure protection of victims’ rights, improve criminal justice services for Indian tribes, fight child exploitation, prosecute human trafficking, combat anti-Semitism, and enforce the federal death penalty, among other issues.  He also helped vet and confirm five Supreme Court justices and dozens of lower court judges.  In addition, he has served as a local and federal prosecutor, Senate aide, IC lawyer, and think-tank analyst.

Mr. Rothenberg holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Amherst College, an M.A.L.D from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Harvard International Law Journal.