Rita Heimes is general counsel and privacy officer/DPO at the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). At Maine Law, she directs the annual Information Privacy Summer Institute, which is a series of summer courses on critical and current information privacy issues.
Professor Heimes has extensive experience in privacy law, intellectual property law, and cybersecurity law in the private sector, having practiced law in Seattle, Anchorage, and Boulder, and most recently at Verrill & Dana in Portland, Maine. Prior to joining the IAPP, she was a law professor and academic dean at Maine Law. At the Law School, she directed the Center for Law + Innovation, founded the patent law clinic, and developed the nation’s first Privacy Pathways program.
Rita is an active scholar and speaker in the privacy law area. She received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Iowa and her J.D. from Drake University School of Law. She clerked for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle. She received a Katahdin counsel award in 2013 for her extensive pro bono service. She is a member of several boards related to information privacy and cybersecurity, and is also involved in local education issues in Portland, Maine.