Nick Akerman is a partner in the Trial Group of the international law firm of Dorsey & Whitney LLP. One of his specialties is the protection of trades secrets and computer data.

In the last couple of years Mr. Akerman has obtained approximately 15 injunctions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in various federal courts around the country requiring computer thieves to return stolen computer data and prohibiting the dissemination of the data to competitors. He also consults with corporate counsel and information technology professionals in developing systems, policies and protocols to protect computer data.

Mr. Akerman speaks and writes regularly on protecting computer data, including in his regular trade secrets column for the National Law Journal, and in the past year has been a featured quoted expert on computer fraud and computer security issues in the Boston Globe, the St. Louis Disptatch, the Sacramento Bee, Forbes, ComputerWorld, CFO Magazine, CNET, CNET Japan, ZDNet, MSN, Internet Week and the Weekly Homeland Security Newsletter.

Prior to private practice Mr. Akerman served as a federal prosecutor - both as an Assistant U.S. States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted a wide array of white collar criminal matters - including bank fraud, stock frauds, complex financial frauds, and tax crimes and as an Assistant Special Watergate Prosecutor to Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski.

Mr. Akerman received his JD, cum laude, from Harvard Law School; and his BA, magna cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts.