Jessica Nall

Partner | San Francisco

Email Jessica
+1 415 872 3205
VCARD

Secretary Erica Tinoco

Email Erica
+1 415 549 2464

Jessica is a partner in the litigation and arbitration team and leader of the executive crisis management and defense practice in San Francisco.

Jess focuses her practice on protecting technology innovators, founders, and executives facing existential challenges and threats of all kinds. Drawing on decades of experience defending high-stakes matters, she has successfully guided many of the tech industry’s most prominent leaders through complex government investigations, threatened and actual litigation, and reputational crises that threatened their and their companies' futures and their personal legacies.  

Her work has included defending the first AI founder targeted by SEC enforcement for alleged misrepresentations about AI capabilities, representing more Chief Information Security Officers in federal investigations than any other US lawyer, and leading the defense in watershed moments for the technology sector – including the historic Yahoo cybersecurity breach investigation and crucial aspects of the FTX Trading investigation.


Jess has successfully defended technology founders and executives in precedent-setting cases involving economic espionage, trade secrets, algorithmic price collusion, and national security matters. Her current clients include high profile AI founders as well as leaders in ClimateTech, cryptocurrency, and cybersecurity, among many others.  

Her executive practice is distinguished by her ability to assemble and lead sophisticated cross-functional teams that address every aspect of a threatened crisis. Whether the threat comes from federal prosecutors, aggressive regulatory agencies, corporate internal investigations, civil litigants, or malicious actors, she coordinates seamlessly across disciplines – bringing together white collar defense, securities enforcement, civil litigation, crisis communications, and threat assessment specialists to create comprehensive defense and risk mitigation strategies.  

In addition to working closely with individual innovators as their trusted advisor and lead counsel in times of crises, she also represents many of the world’s largest and most innovative technology companies in strategic advising, internal investigations (related to everything from whistleblowers to cybersecurity incident response), and insider threat assessment and mitigation.  Her litigation and government defense practice, though focused largely on executive representations across a range of technology subsectors, is broad based and also includes deep experience in financial technology/cryptocurrency, healthcare fraud defense, environmental criminal defense, and antitrust defense.  


Achievements

Jess has been recognized by Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, and Global Investigations Review for internal investigations and defense in cases involving White Collar Crime & Government Investigations.

Recent recognition

2025 Best Lawyers award badge for Jessica Nall
Award badge for Jessica Nall for Chambers USA 2025

Experience

Commercial litigation Crisis management Crypto and digital assets Financial services Founders Government
High net worth individuals Intellectual property Leaders and senior executives Technology White collar defense and investigations

Track record


City and County of Honolulu

Represented the City and County of Honolulu in connection with various federal criminal public corruption investigations in Honolulu and related proceedings in federal District Court in Hawaii.

Complex internal investigation

Represented the Audit Committee of a publicly traded Bay Area technology company in complex internal investigation involving revenue recognition issues and related whistleblower allegations of financial fraud in global operations.

Complex international data security incident

Represented a global financial services company in a complex international data security incident including conducting international internal investigation and employing complex civil litigation in a successful effort to obtain the return of critical PII data stolen by a former company insider.

Complex RICO litigation

Successfully defended healthcare technology company founder in complex RICO litigation in federal district court in the Central District of California.

Crisis-driven internal investigations

Represented one of the largest technology companies in California in a global evaluation of government surveillance obligations and conducted a range of crisis-driven internal investigations involving emerging tech industry issues.

Cyber-breach

Represented founder and CEO of Bay Area school lunch company regarding criminal case alleged against Chief Operating Officer for alleged cyber-breach against competitor including conducting internal investigation.

Data analytics and Artificial Intelligence company

Represented the former CEO of a Silicon Valley-based data analytics and Artificial Intelligence company in a groundbreaking enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the data inputs into an AI model.

Debarment proceedings

Successfully represented CEO and founder of Bay Area contracting companies in debarment proceedings by the City and County of San Francisco.

Talks

  • 'Regulatory Developments and Enforcement Risks around AI,' Cambridge Forum on Litigation and Enforcement Risks Facing the Tech Sector - April 21, 2026, speaker
  • 'Crisis Management: Navigating Legal, Reputational, and Business Risk in Real Time,' Cambridge Forum on Litigation and Enforcement Risks Facing the Tech Sector - April 20, 2026, speaker
  • 'AI Agents Accountability & Identity: The New CISO Playbook,' RSA Conference 2026, Executive Forum - March 23, 2026, panelist
  • 'AI Is in Business: Everything…Everywhere, All at Once,' Chicago Finance Exchange - March 17, 2026, speaker
  • 'Responsible Innovation: Embracing AI Ethically and Effectively in US Legal Practice,' Withers LLP, San Francisco - March 13, 2026, speaker
  • 'Deepfakes, Synthetic Identities & the New Evidentiary Battleground with Artificial Intelligence,' ABA White Collar Institute - March 11, 2026, speaker/moderator
  • 'Unlocking Boardroom Success,' How Women Lead Masterclass - December 11, 2025, speaker

  • 'Losing Your Company in 24 Hours - The Board Experience,' PRISM Private Directors Association National Conference & Exhibition - October 8, 2025, speaker

  • 'Mitigating Personal Liability Risks for CLOs in the Event of Major Cyber Incident,' Health Tech CLOs - May 22, 2025, speaker

  • 'Crisis Management Playbook for a New Era: Navigating Investigations and Communications Under the Current Administration,' 4th Annual Women in Investigations Network (WIIN) Half-Day Retreat - May 21, 2025, speaker
  • 'Artificial Intelligence: Key Issues and Applications in White Collar,' 40th Annual ABA White Collar Institute - March 6, 2025, speaker and moderator
  • 'AI Transformation and the Law:  What Law and the Legal Profession Will Look Like in 10 years,' A Fireside Chat with AAA CEO and U-Penn AI adjunct professor Bridget McCormack, 40th Annual ABA White Collar Institute - March 5, 2025, speaker
  • 'Managing Personal Risk to CISOs During Security Incidents,' Bay Area Cyber Leadership and Entrepreneurship Summit hosted by Tejas Cyber Network - January 25, 2025, speaker
  • 'AI Governance Considerations for Public Company Board Members,' NACD Leading Minds of Governance - December 16, 2024, speaker
  • 'Forum re: What's Next for Tech Compliance Leaders,' High Tech Compliance Group SF Bay Area - December 12, 2024, speaker and mistress of ceremonies
  • 'AI Ethics and Board Governance,' The Legal Tech Fund Summit - December 3, 2024, speaker
  • 'Navigating the CISO's New Reality,' Business of Cyber Series Podcast, LinkedIn Live - October 31, 2024, podcast guest
  • 'AI, Risks, Rewards and Accountability,' How Women Lead #GetOnBoardWeek - October 25, 2024, moderator and panelist
  • 'Jess Nall: The Future of AI Safety, Ethics and Board Governance,' How Women Inspire Podcast - October 3, 2024, podcast guest
  • 'Fireside Chat with Izzy Ramsey, U.S. Attorney for NDCA,' Harvard Law School Alumni Association of N. Ca - September 30, 2024, speaker
  • 'Cyber Risk Reporting: Communications with the Board in the Emerging Landscape,' Private Directors Association Annual "Prism" conference - September 17, 2024, speaker
  • 'White Collar Defense Bar Views of the Top: What's New and What's Next,' ABA White Collar Subcommittee and WWCDA Bay Area - August 20, 2024, speaker
  • 'Dodging the Bullet: Essential Strategies for CISOs to Sidestep Government Fallout in the Wake of Major Cyberattacks,' Black Hat USA Cybersecurity Conference - August 8, 2024, featured briefings speaker
  • 'Jess Nall on Practical Advice for CISOs,' ITSP Magazine Podcast - July 16, 2024, podcast guest
  • 'Artificial Intelligence's Impact on Evidence and White Collar Defense Practice,' WWCDA Global Webinar - June 26, 2024, speaker  
  • 'Trends in AI Regulatory and Criminal Enforcement,' WWCDA San Francisco Bay Area Chapter - May 30, 2024, speaker  
  • 'AI Regulatory Risk Update and Practical Use Cases for AI Tools In Legal Practice,' Women In Investigations Network - May 22, 2024, speaker  
  • Annual Investigations and Compliance Seminar, London - May 21 2024, speaker
  • 'AI and Its Impact White Collar Enforcement and Defense,' Cambridge Forum on Corporate Enforcement - May 16, 2024, speaker

External publications

Admissions

  • State of California

Education

  • Berkeley Law School, Masters in Law, AI Law and Regulation (expected 2025)

  • MIT Sloan School of Executive Management and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) (Certificate, Artificial Intelligence: Implications For Business Strategy), 2024

  • Harvard Law School, JD

  • University of California, Berkeley, BA 

Memberships

  • Women’s White Collar Defense Association - Global Chair of Alumni & Membership, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter Leader (2006-present)
  • Women in Investigations Network (for Female Senior Executives in Investigations and Compliance) - Founder and Chair, (2021-present)
  • American Bar Association - Co-chair, White Collar Crime Subcommittee for Northern California (2014-present)
  • ABA Criminal Justice Section - Co-chair, Women in White Collar Committee (2014-present)
  • Criminal Justice Section, Bar Association of San Francisco - Co-chair, Executive Committee (2010-2015)
  • US District Court, Northern District of California - Panel attorney, Criminal Justice Act Panel (2015-present)
  • Jewish Vocational Services - Member, Strictly Business Committee (2010-2013)  

Key dates

  • Year joined: 2025

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