Jim Pastore is a partner in the firm’s Commercial Litigation Group, and a member of the Data Strategy & Security and Asset Management Litigation practices. Mr. Pastore routinely represents high-profile clients in complex civil litigation and data breach responses, with a particular focus on technology-related litigation. Mr. Pastore also regularly counsels clients on cutting-edge data privacy and cybersecurity issues.
As a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Mr. Pastore has extensive trial and courtroom experience. The Legal 500 US (2024), which recognizes Mr. Pastore for his cybersecurity and data privacy work, has described him as a “brilliant litigator” who is “an exceptional attorney” and “smart, patient and flexible in his approach.” Chambers Global (2024) and Chambers USA (2024) which recognize Mr. Pastore as a leading lawyer for Privacy and Data Security, describe him as “excellent and … very well renowned in the industry,” “fantastic - a very solid and extraordinarily strong lawyer” and “a brilliant cybersecurity attorney.” Chambers USA (2024) also places Mr. Pastore in the top band for Incident Response. Sources have said that he is “truly a remarkable attorney in every way” and that he has a “great knowledge of cyber and breach response: the actual nuts and bolts of breach response and managing the process.” Named as a Cybersecurity Trailblazer by The National Law Journal, Mr. Pastore has also been named to Cybersecurity Docket’s “Incident Response 40,” a collection of 40 of the “best and brightest” incident response attorneys in the country, every year since the list’s inception. He is recommended as a Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation (2025), and was named a Rising Star by The New York Law Journal (2018) and Law360 (2017).
Mr. Pastore has a broad practice representing clients in complex commercial disputes and class actions, with a particular focus in the financial services industry, representing some of the largest private equity firms, banks, and insurance companies in the world. Clients frequently call on Mr. Pastore to translate technology-related risks into key business and legal decisions, whether in the context of data breach-related litigation, regulatory investigations stemming from cyber incidents, or complex business disputes regarding technology transfers and trade secrets.
Mr. Pastore has represented clients in multiple Multidistrict Litigations stemming from data breaches, including KeyBank in connection with a vendor-related data breach, as well as multiple insurance companies in connection with the MDL stemming from the massive MOVEit cyberattack.
Mr. Pastore began his legal career at Debevoise before serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York’s Criminal Division (2009-2014), where he was assigned to the Complex Frauds Unit and Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Section. He successfully litigated eight jury trials to verdict. Among other cases, he led Operation Dirty R.A.T., one of the earliest ransomware prosecutions, which resulted in the largest ever worldwide law enforcement action against cybercriminals. He was the lead prosecutor in United States v. Monsegur, a/k/a “Sabu” and Operation Cardshop, both of which were named to the FBI’s top 10 cases of 2012. In connection with the so-called “doomsday virus,” Mr. Pastore obtained a unique order to prevent a catastrophic Internet outage.
Mr. Pastore is routinely sought out as a speaker on cybersecurity and data privacy, having been invited to present to the Department of Justice’s National Cyber Security Division, the DOJ’s National Advocacy Center, Georgetown Law’s Cybersecurity Law Institute, the FBI-led International Conference on Cyber Security, the annual meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Counsel (ALIC) and the Fiduciary & Investment Risk Management Association (FIRMA)’s National Risk Management Training Conference, as well as to the boards of multiple public companies.
Mr. Pastore is a co-author of the Practising Law Institute’s 2023 edition of the “Privacy Law Answer Book.” His recent publications include “Mitigating AI Risks for Customer Service Chatbots,” NYU Compliance & Enforcement Blog (May, 2024); “Artificial Intelligence in Class Action Litigation,” New York Law Journal (December, 2023); “Debevoise Discusses White House’s National Cybersecurity Strategy,” CLS Blue Sky Blog (March, 2023); “NYDFS Proposes Significant Changes to Its Cybersecurity Rules,” NYU Compliance & Enforcement (August, 2022); “A New Era of Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) Privacy and Cybersecurity Oversight: Top Ten Things Companies Should Know When Assessing FTC Compliance and Exposure,” NYU Compliance & Enforcement Blog (January, 2022); “What Stablecoin Industry Can Expect From Congress In 2022,” Law360 (January, 2022); “Debevoise & Plimpton on the Latest Round of SEC Cybersecurity Enforcement Actions,” Columbia Blue Sky Blog (September, 2021); “Key Takeaways from the First Year of CCPA Enforcement,” Compliance & Enforcement (August, 2021); “Destruction Emerges as a Powerful Enforcement Measure for AI: FTC Requires Company to Delete Models Trained with Improperly Utilized Consumer Data,” Compliance & Enforcement (January, 2021); “Post-Election Law Privacy Law Prospects,” Compliance & Enforcement (November, 2020); and “AI Legal Work Is Mirroring Cybersecurity Practice Path,” Bloomberg Law (September, 2020).
Mr. Pastore earned his J.D. with distinction from Stanford Law School in 2004. He served as Co-President of the Stanford Law & Technology Association and was a member of the Stanford Technology Law Review. He received his B.A. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Notre Dame in 2001, where he was a Notre Dame Scholar, the recipient of the James E. Robinson Award for outstanding senior English major.