Practices

Government Experience

  • U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps—Research Associate, 2003
  • Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)—Graduate Fellow, Office of General Counsel, 2004
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces—Law Clerk for Chief Judge Effron, 2005-2007
  • Vermont Supreme Court—Judicial Extern for Justice Denise Johnson, 2004

Education

  • Stony Brook University, B.A. (2000) summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
  • Vermont Law School, J.D. (2005) magna cum laude
  • New College, Oxford University, B.C.L. (2008)

Admissions

  • New York
  • District of Columbia
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
  • U.S. Federal District Court, Southern District of New York
  • U.S. Federal District Court, Eastern District of New York

Alexander Urbelis

Senior Counsel
aurbelis@crowell.com
+1.212.895.4254

Alex Urbelis is a senior counsel in the New York office and a member of the Privacy & Cybersecurity Group. Alex has more than 20 years of experience in the information security community and has varied experience as a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Chief Compliance Officer, in-house counsel, and private practice litigator.

Alex has a unique skill set that has allowed him to create a bridge between the technical and legal side of cybersecurity. As a result, he is the primary architect of an exclusive DNS (Domain Name Search) monitoring and intelligence platform. Through this intel platform, Alex advises his clients on identified and early-stage indicators of cybersecurity threats and provides counsel on legal actions and technical defensive remedies to neutralize those threats. Alex tracks sophisticated cyber adversaries and advanced persistent threats (APTs) through his intel platform and, notably, detected a state-sponsored cyber intrusion attempt targeting the World Health Organization in March 2020. For combining legal and technical skill sets with public service, the Financial Times selected Alex as a finalist for its Innovative Lawyers awards for pandemic response in 2020. 

Prior to joining Crowell & Moring, Alex co-founded an information security, compliance, and related investigative services law firm with a cybersecurity advisory consulting arm. While working as a partner at his firm, Alex took a secondment to serve as Interim CISO of the NFL, where he managed cyber risk, incident response, and directed information security strategy to protect information assets. Before founding his firm, in London, Geneva, and New York, Alex served as Chief Compliance Officer for one of the world’s largest luxury conglomerates, Richemont, handling all aspects of worldwide legal compliance, including anti-bribery and anti-corruption efforts, whistle-blowing matters, internal and external investigations, and ensuring that employees and partners adhered business conduct and corporate social responsibility standards. 

In addition to advising clients on a wide range of data security and privacy matters, Alex has assisted the world’s largest technology companies and non-profit organizations with Internet governance matters and the expansion of the global DNS. He has a deep understanding of Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) proceedings, Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) proceedings, and national Dispute Resolution Proceedings (DRPs) to reclaim domain names from threat actors and cybersquatters.

As an appellate lawyer, Alex has represented U.S. service members and civilians in claims for torture compensation before the U.S. Supreme Court and has successfully argued for Convention Against Torture protection for potential deportees in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.



Recognition

  • Luxury Law Summit: Service Provider Award, Category: Brand Protection, 2021
  • Financial Times: Innovative Lawyer Awards, Finalist, 2020 


Affiliations

Professional Activities and Memberships

  • Professor of Law, King's College London
  • Society of Professional Investigators, 2020 – Present
  • Uniform Law Commission, Cybercrime Study Committee, 2021 – Present
  • Human Rights First, Technology Advisory Board, 2020 – Present
  • Speaker Selection Committee, HOPE Conference, 2019 – Present
  • Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Security Council, 2017 – Present
  • Board of Directors, Internet Society NY Chapter, 2018 – 2019


Speeches & Presentations



Publications



Client Alerts & Newsletters



Press Coverage



Firm News & Announcements

September 22, 2021 Crowell & Moring’s Alexander Urbelis Receives Luxury Law Award for Brand Protection