What was the most valuable lesson you learned in your first year of practice? As a Senate staffer, you write your own “how-to” manual by learning from and building relationships with other staffers. A base of policy knowledge is important, but relationships are the coin of the realm.

Describe your biggest win or accomplishment in practice. After the [Edward] Snowden disclosures, Sen. [Al] Franken asked me to work with privacy advocates and the intelligence community to improve NSA transparency. I was then his chief counsel. We hammered out rules, now law, to give Americans a sense of the scope of NSA surveillance, while letting the intelligence committee complete its mission.

Who do you consider to be your greatest lawyer mentor? David Vladeck [faculty director of Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy & Technology]. For David, mentorship is as important as any other part of his practice. I aspire to be as patient and generous as David is.