Jonathan D. Avila
VP, Counsel Chief Privacy Legal Officer
The Walt Disney Company

Jonathan D. Avila serves as Vice President -- Counsel, Chief Privacy Legal Officer of The Walt Disney Company in Burbank, California. Mr. Avila supervises data privacy law counseling and compliance for the domestic and international operations of Disney’s offline and online businesses.

Prior to joining Disney, Mr. Avila was General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer of Mvalue.com, Inc., a venture capital-funded Internet company. Mr. Avila also has served as Litigation Counsel to CBS Broadcasting, Inc., where he represented CBS in privacy litigation related to CBS’ news broadcasting activities. Prior to joining CBS, Mr. Avila practiced with the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins. Mr. Avila began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge W. Eugene Davis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Mr. Avila has served as Western Region Co-Chair, and presently serves as a member of the Governing Committee, of the Forum on Communications Law of the American Bar Association. Mr. Avila was a member of the Advisory Group to the California Office of Privacy Protection with respect to its Recommended Practices on California Information-Sharing Disclosures and Privacy Policy Statements (SB 27). Mr. Avila also serves on the Board of Directors of the Imagen Foundation, a non-profit entity devoted to fostering positive portrays of Latinos in the entertainment media.

Mr. Avila is the author of “Food Lion and Beyond: New Developments in the Law of Hidden Cameras” published in the Winter 1999 issue of Communications Lawyer. Mr. Avila has spoken publicly on a number of occasions on the subjects of data privacy and First Amendment rights.

Mr. Avila graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, and received a J.D. from the Harvard Law School in 1984. Mr. Avila also holds a diploma from the University of Salamanca (Spain).