Thomas J. Smedinghoff is a partner in the Privacy & Data Protection practice group in the Chicago office of Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP. His practice focuses on the developing field of information law and electronic business activities, with an emphasis on electronic transactions, identity management, data security, privacy, and corporate information governance issues.
Mr. Smedinghoff has been actively involved in developing e-business, e-signature, identity management, and data security legal policy both in the U.S. and globally. He currently serves as Chair of the Identity Management Legal Task Force of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Business Law, and Co-Chair of its Cybersecurity Committee. He is also a member of the ABA President's Cybersecurity Legal Task Force. Previously, he was chair of the ABA Section of Science & Technology Law (1999-2000) and chair of the ABA Electronic Commerce Division (1995-2003). Mr. Smedinghoff is also a member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), where he participates in the Working Group on Electronic Commerce and helped to negotiate the international e-commerce treaty titled the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts and the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures. He served as an ABA Advisor to the Uniform Law Commission committee that drafted the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act.
Mr. Smedinghoff is the author of the book titled INFORMATION SECURITY LAW: THE EMERGING STANDARD FOR CORPORATE COMPLIANCE, (2008). He is also the editor and primary author of the e-commerce book titled ONLINE LAW: THE LEGAL GUIDE TO DOING BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET (Addison Wesley, 1996).