Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has welcomed aboard Elizabeth George, a former deputy general counsel for legislation at the U.S. Department of Defense, as of counsel in the firm's data protection and privacy practice in San Francisco.

George's position at the Defense Department, which lasted about a year, ended in January with the Obama administration. Before that, she held several roles in the national security division at the U.S. Department of Justice. Her work as a programmer in college led her in the direction of cybersecurity law when she joined the federal government in 2011, she said.

When the Office of Personnel Management discovered in 2015 that it had fallen victim to one of the largest data breaches in U.S. government history, George, on detail from the Justice Department, led the Office of White House Counsel's response to the hack. She also advised the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in its review of intelligence collection activities after leaks by former national security contractor Edward Snowden.