Partner
Washington DC, D.C.
Deb Matties has twenty-five years of experience in the public, corporate, and nonprofit sectors, including ten years as an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission. Her practice draws on her degree in biology and leverages her knowledge of consumer products, data privacy, and food and drug law. Deb helps clients respond to government inquiries and counsels them on compliance with federal and state law and regulations, including those administered by the FTC, FDA, CFPB, and CPSC. She also negotiates manufacturing agreements for food and dietary supplement manufacturers and B2B and B2C agreements for technology clients.
In her free time, Deb has served her community as an elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Washington, D.C., working with government agencies to help residents with social services, zoning, and regulatory compliance. She prepared income tax returns for low-income families and provided pro bono legal aid through the Neighborhood Legal Services Program, assisting tenants in disputes with landlords and providing legal counsel to low-income residents of the District of Columbia. She has taught English as a Second Language to newly arrived residents as a volunteer, and she and her husband regularly host high-school exchange students from around the globe.
Deb is a long-time resident of Washington D.C. and is an enthusiastic world traveler, recreational swimmer, and art and architecture enthusiast. She can often be found at her family’s home on the Delaware shore.
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”
Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer
Mountains, by Prince and the Revolution (if I have to pick just one song by Prince)
Sesame-crusted seared ahi tuna, fried artichoke hearts, and crusty sourdough bread, followed by cheesecake from Veniero’s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan
Paul Klee, Swiss expressionist and surrealist
If I didn’t work for a law firm, I’d be a landscape architect.
Deb Matties has twenty-five years of experience in the public, corporate, and nonprofit sectors, including ten years as an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission. Her practice draws on her degree in biology and leverages her knowledge of consumer products, data privacy, and food and drug law. Deb helps clients respond to government inquiries and counsels them on compliance with federal and state law and regulations, including those administered by the FTC, FDA, CFPB, and CPSC. She also negotiates manufacturing agreements for food and dietary supplement manufacturers and B2B and B2C agreements for technology clients.
In her free time, Deb has served her community as an elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Washington, D.C., working with government agencies to help residents with social services, zoning, and regulatory compliance. She prepared income tax returns for low-income families and provided pro bono legal aid through the Neighborhood Legal Services Program, assisting tenants in disputes with landlords and providing legal counsel to low-income residents of the District of Columbia. She has taught English as a Second Language to newly arrived residents as a volunteer, and she and her husband regularly host high-school exchange students from around the globe.
Deb is a long-time resident of Washington D.C. and is an enthusiastic world traveler, recreational swimmer, and art and architecture enthusiast. She can often be found at her family’s home on the Delaware shore.
Before joining Practus, Deb was in private practice at another firm. During the pandemic, she served as General Counsel for Washington D.C.’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, the 600-person agency providing communications, applications, cybersecurity, and technology support to D.C.’s government agencies and workers. In this role, Deb negotiated communications and procurement contracts and crafted data-sharing and nondisclosure agreements. She also worked directly with the General Counsel for the Mayor of the District of Columbia on vaccine mandates, vaccine incentives, and other top priorities of Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Previously, Deb held leadership roles in several political and nonprofit organizations focused on transforming political advocacy and promoting civic engagement through innovative technology. These included the New Data Project, which developed VoteWithMe, a mobile app that made novel use of voter data to improve voter turnout in the 2018 General Election.
From 2013-2016, Deb served as Vice President for Privacy at CTIA, a trade association representing the wireless telecommunications industry. There, she stood up a new program giving member companies a robust voice in policy, legal, and technical debates over consumer privacy. During her time at CTIA, Deb testified before Congress, educated lawmakers and executive branch officials in private meetings, prepared filings to government agencies, represented the mobile wireless industry in press interviews, and spoke at policy symposia and conferences. She educated and cultivated relationships with Fortune 100 C-Suite leaders and helped to shape corporate advocacy related to core business units and new technologies. Deb also served as an appointee to the Federal Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee, providing advice to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on policy, operational, administrative, and technological issues related to personally identifiable information.
Earlier in her career, Deb spent ten years at the Federal Trade Commission, first as a litigator responsible for fraud and unfairness cases, and then as a senior legal and policy advisor to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. During this period, her work focused on law enforcement cases involving environmental and health advertising claims for consumer products, endorsements, and liability of technology platforms. She also played critical roles on matters setting new standards in data privacy and security, including pathbreaking cases involving Google and Facebook.
Deb began her career as an associate with Covington & Burling, where she advised food, dietary supplement, and medical device companies on compliance issues related to their advertising claims and marketing programs. She also advised early “dot-com” technology clients on international, federal, and state privacy laws and practices. Deb has an undergraduate degree in biology, with a concentration in molecular genetics.
Giving Others a Voice in Congress, One Hand-Delivered Letter at a Time (August 17, 2018)
C-SPAN Forum on FCC Privacy Rules (April 1, 2016)
At Practus, we handle complex and challenging legal matters. I look forward to talking to you about how we can best meet your goals.
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