Christopher Olsen is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini and co-chair of the firm’s privacy and cybersecurity practice. Chris advises clients on all aspects of privacy and cybersecurity matters and represents companies under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general. He has an established track record of success in resolving investigations without enforcement action and clients regularly seek his guidance when facing high-stakes regulatory scrutiny.

Chris is a former deputy director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where he directed the international work of the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection and acted as the agency's co-lead negotiator in discussions with the European Commission regarding improvements to and renewal of the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework.

Prior to joining the bureau director's office, Chris was the assistant director of the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection at the FTC. In this role, he managed a number of significant privacy and security enforcement actions, as well as several of the most important privacy initiatives in recent FTC history, including a seminal 2012 FTC report on consumer privacy that formulated important recommendations for businesses.

Previously, Chris served in a variety of roles at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), including deputy chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, where he directed several of the most significant enforcement matters in the commission's history, including the agency's first net neutrality order; its first actions enforcing the National Do-Not-Call requirements; and multimillion-dollar cases involving local competition and consumer protection rules.

Prior to joining the FCC, Chris was a partner at Howrey Simon Arnold & White, LLP, where he managed a variety of complex litigation matters.