About

Nyssa is an international tech, human rights, data security, and privacy lawyer; writer; mentor; world traveler; global citizen; hotel aficionado; design lover; founder of the award-winning travel website, The Cultureur; founder of the global mentorship nonprofit for law students and lawyers, Mentor in Law; and writer of the upcoming Indian cookbook, Sapphire & Spice.

Based in Denver, Nyssa is a lawyer in the Privacy and Data Security group at Perkins Coie LLP. She advises online platforms, communications providers, and other global technology clients on international privacy, data security, free speech, and human rights issues associated with electronic communications and activity. These matters range from domestic and cross-border government demands for communications data in criminal investigations to intergovernmental agencies investigating atrocity crimes in humanitarian crises. In the area of cross-border digital evidence, Nyssa advises clients on issues arising from the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (CLOUD) Act, the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention), and other international and domestic mechanisms utilized by governments and litigants to obtain evidence from a platform in one country for use in another country. She also provides guidance on government search and seizure issues, and works on matters related to digital safety, platform regulation, data preservation, and content liability. Through her work, she has cultivated a global network of local counsel in over 100 countries, which she leverages to assist companies in processing non-U.S. requests for communications user data.

Currently, she is the co-chair of the Data Privacy and Security group at the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) and a part of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD)’s 2024 class of Pathfinders. Additionally, she is the recipient of NAPABA’s 2024 Best Under 40 award and the American Bar Association’s 2022 On the Rise Top 40 Lawyers award, and she is on the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch list for technology law in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Previously, she worked at Microsoft as an intellectual property lawyer and was part of the Pro Bono Steering Committee. She was also a Washington Leadership Institute Fellow at the Washington State Bar Association; an Aspen NextGen Fellow as part of the NextGen Network of the Transatlantic Initiative at the Aspen Institute; and a World Affairs Council Fellow.

As the proud daughter of immigrants, Nyssa is a vocal champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (particularly amplifying the voices of women and minorities) and a fierce advocate of both giving back to the community through pro bono work and paying it forward through mentorship.

Originally from Southern California, Nyssa has lived, studied, and worked around the world—Paris, Los Angeles, Orange County, New Delhi, London, San Diego, Seattle, Denver, Berlin, with briefer stints in Marburg, Mussoorie, and Reykjavik—and traveled to 50+ countries.

Prior to law school, she worked at U.S. Embassies in New Delhi, Paris, and London through the Department of State; freelanced as a travel writer for international publications (featured in AFAR, Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, among others); volunteered at several global NGOs related to education and women’s empowerment; and co-founded a health and wellness company.

Additionally, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany and received a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego; an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science; and a J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law.

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