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Ali Cooper-Ponte

Ali Cooper-Ponte draws on her experience at the U.S. Department of Justice to advise clients on complex and sensitive national security, cybersecurity, and online safety matters across regulatory, investigations, enforcement, and litigation contexts.

In her investigations and litigation practice, Ali guides clients through both internal and government investigations. She helps clients across industries navigate significant enterprise risks, including insider, criminal, and advanced persistent or nation-state threats, as well as challenges relating to emerging technologies. She has also helped clients proactively engage with or respond to inquiries by the U.S. Department of Justice, state Attorneys General, and the Federal Trade Commission.

In her advisory practice, Ali helps clients strategically manage rapidly-changing regulatory and technological landscapes. She counsels clients on compliance with national security, cybersecurity, data privacy, content moderation, and child exploitation laws. She has particular expertise on issues relating to government access to data, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Fourth Amendment. She also has significant experience with new Federal and state laws implicating Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and the First Amendment. Here, her experience spans industries (including the technology, healthcare, cryptocurrency and financial services, and aerospace and defense industries) and includes providing practical advice on new legislation, regulatory frameworks, and court rulings as well as developing legislative proposals and potential challenges to new legislation and government action.

Previously, Ali served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Senior Counsel in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, where she focused on the cyber and child exploitation portfolios, and as a Trial Attorney in the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section and the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. She joined the Justice Department as part of its inaugural class of Cyber Fellows, which gave her broad exposure to the Department’s work to address cyber and cyber-enabled threats.

Earlier in her career, Ali clerked for Judge José A. Cabranes on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Prior to law school, Ali worked as a legal investigations specialist focused on electronic surveillance and law enforcement access issues at a large technology company.

In addition to her regular practice, Ali leverages her experience to counsel pro bono clients engaged in work to protect children and civil liberties.

Contact:Read more about Ali Cooper-PonteEmail

On July 14, 2026, the Trump Administration announced the launch of a federal clearinghouse, “Gold Eagle,” that is designed to facilitate the sharing of AI-derived cybersecurity vulnerability information between government agencies, “American critical infrastructure companies,” and “open-source software partners.”  

The creation of Gold Eagle is the latest in a series of Administration actions focused…

Continue Reading White House Launches “Gold Eagle” AI Cybersecurity Clearinghouse

This morning, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Gonzalez v. Google LLC, 2 F.4th 871 (9th Cir. 2021) on the following question presented:  “Does section 230(c)(1) immunize interactive computer services when they make targeted recommendations of information provided by another information content provider, or only limit the liability of interactive computer services when they engage in traditional editorial functions (such as deciding whether to display or withdraw) with regard to such information?”  This is the first opportunity the Court has taken to interpret 47 U.S.C. § 230 (“Section 230”) since the law was enacted in 1996.

Continue Reading Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Gonzalez v. Google, Marking First Time Court Will Review Section 230

On September 16, the Fifth Circuit issued its decision in NetChoice L.L.C. v. Paxton, upholding Texas HB 20, a law that limits the ability of large social media platforms to moderate content and imposes various disclosure and appeal requirements on them.  The Fifth Circuit vacated the district court’s preliminary injunction, which previously blocked the Texas Attorney General from enforcing the law.  NetChoice is likely to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Fifth Circuit’s decision.

HB 20 prohibits “social media platforms” with “more than 50 million active users” from “censor[ing] a user, a user’s expression, or a user’s ability to receive the expression of another person” based on the “viewpoint” of the user or another person, or the user’s location.  HB 20 also includes various transparency requirements for covered entities, for example, requiring them to publish information about their algorithms for displaying content, to publish an “acceptable use policy” with information about their content restrictions, and to provide users an explanation for each decision to remove their content, as well as a right to appeal the decision.

Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Upholds Texas Law Restricting Online “Censorship”