Kate McKenzie is Senior Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties (OPCL). She is responsible for handling a variety of privacy and civil liberty issues including those raised through the use of artificial intelligence and biometrics. Kate serves as the co-chair for multiple working groups at DOJ, including the Facial Recognition Technology Working Group and the Data Brokers Working Group. Accordingly, Kate is intimately involved in policy development concerning the use of emerging technologies. In addition to developing policy, Kate works to ensure that all applicable privacy requirements, such as those mandated under The Privacy Act of 1974 and The E-Government Act of 2002, are satisfied by the law enforcement and national security components of DOJ.

Prior to joining OPCL, Kate was a prosecutor in New York City and a national security attorney with DOJ’s National Security Division. In addition to litigating criminal cases, Kate regularly appeared before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to help provide law enforcement officers with the tools necessary for high-paced, complex counterterrorism investigations. Kate has trained law enforcement agents and federal prosecutors on the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to enhance their investigations while complying with the law.