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Stephen Ruckman is a counsel in the State Attorney General Practice of Cadwalader’s Global Litigation Group. Stephen has experience representing clients in a broad range of matters including federal and state investigations and enforcement actions, and has advised clients on compliance with federal and state laws pertaining to privacy, cyber risk, data security, telecommunications, and other technology regulation.
Stephen is well versed in a range of government enforcement actions, having spent time as Senior Policy Advisor in the Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and as Assistant Attorney General in the Executive Division of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General (OAG). At the FCC, he led efforts to modernize the Commission’s enforcement of online privacy protections under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and coordinated inter-agency and state-federal enforcement efforts involving major telecommunications companies.
At the Maryland OAG, Stephen served as the first director of the first statewide Internet Privacy and Safety Unit, leading multi-state investigations on behalf of state attorneys general concerning Internet privacy and data security. He also litigated constitutional matters on behalf of Maryland in state courts, federal district and appellate courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. His appellate work with colleagues defending the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act received the Supreme Court Best Brief Award from the National Association of Attorneys General. Stephen also briefed and argued several criminal appeals before state appellate courts, and assisted the Office with advancing regulatory reforms on issues ranging from consumer and environmental protection to drug diversion.
Stephen also has extensive experience in higher education policy, having spent five years as Senior Advisor to the President for Policy at Johns Hopkins University. There, he led the university’s policy planning team and co-authored or revised several key university-wide policies on issues such as data retention, intellectual property, open access, social media, online privacy, and discrimination and harassment. His general policy experience also includes work for the Maryland OAG as acting legislative director and work for members of both houses of Parliament.
Stephen received his J.D. from the Yale Law School, where he was Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Yale Journal of International Law, and an M.A.R. in Ethics from the Yale Divinity School, where he was a Marquand Scholar. He received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Amherst College and an M.Sc., with distinction, from the London School of Economics, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Catherine C. Blake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and as a Supreme Court Fellow for the National Association of Attorneys General. He also taught legal writing at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
Stephen is admitted to practice in Maryland and the District of Columbia, and before the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
