Justin Keslowitz '12
Justin Keslowitz '12
Privacy and Cybersecurity Attorney (Assistant General Counsel), New York Life Insurance Company
In my role, I advise New York Life in identifying, evaluating and managing complex global privacy and information security risks and compliance issues, including preparing for and responding to data breaches, and developing policies and procedures to comply with international and domestic privacy laws. Prior to working at New York Life, I was an associate attorney at the global law firm Hunton & Williams LLP, where I also worked on privacy and cybersecurity matters.
In what ways do you feel your major in history helped to prepare you for your current career? Are there any skills that you developed as an undergraduate history major that are essential to your work? And can you give us an example (or examples) of this?
A large part of an attorney's job is being able to analyze complex and dense material to determine the key facts or legal issues. For example, I often need to analyze detailed and lengthy contracts and statements of work to determine whether there are any important privacy or cybersecurity legal issues that need to be addressed based on the relationship of the parties to the agreement or the subject matter. As a history major, I was constantly confronted with analyzing lengthy and difficult material, and tasked with crafting narratives, summaries, and arguments about what I read. To do so, I needed to read critically to fully understand the key facts and issues that were being discussed. This experience as a history major helped me hone my analytical and critical reading skills, which have proven invaluable in my daily professional life.
Are there any other reflections on your history major or time in the History Department that you'd like us to include in your spotlight?
I really appreciated the inclusive nature of the History Department and its courses. I always felt I was able to express my views on different topics in a meaningful way, and also learn from the perspectives of others who might've seen the world a bit differently than I did.
