Latham & Watkins announced on October 26, 2026 that Michael Macko, former head of enforcement at the California Privacy Protection Agency, or CalPrivacy, had joined its Bay Area offices as a partner in the Privacy & Cyber Practice and a member of the Litigation & Trial Department.

Macko advises clients on privacy and consumer protection investigations, government investigations, internal investigations and cross-border enforcement coordination, as well as personal data risks arising from AI, digital advertising and data brokering.

As CalPrivacy’s inaugural enforcement chief, Macko built its enforcement programme from the ground up, oversaw hundreds of matters and supervised investigations and litigation involving monetary penalties and injunctive relief. He also helped set regulatory priorities, issued advisories on data minimization, data brokering and deceptive design, and advanced cooperation with US enforcement agencies and regulators in the UK, France and Korea.

Before joining CalPrivacy, Macko served as corporate counsel for government and regulatory litigation at Amazon, as a trial attorney in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, and as a trial attorney and Assistant US Attorney at the Department of Justice. He began his career as a litigation associate at Dechert and also clerked for judges on a US District Court and a US Court of Appeals.

Michael Rubin, global chair of Latham’s Privacy & Cyber Practice, said Macko’s experience building enforcement programmes, shaping priorities and coordinating regulators would support the firm’s work on high-stakes regulatory and enforcement matters.