Nabiha Syed is an American technology lawyer and media executive. Syed is currently the chief executive officer of ''The Markup'', a data-driven journalism outlet. She has been described as "one of the best emerging free speech lawyers" by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' magazine.

Biography

Syed was born to parents who immigrated from

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. A

Marshall Scholar The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...

, Syed co-founded the Media Freedom and Information Access legal clinic at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

, of which she is a graduate and a visiting fellow. She handled libel, privacy, and newsgathering matters at ''

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

'', a global media company. Prior to BuzzFeed, Syed was the First Amendment Fellow at ''The New York Times''. Syed also serves as adjunct faculty at

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...

, and as the Vice Chair of the

Student Press Law Center The Student Press Law Center (SPLC) is a non-profit organization in the United States that aims to protect press freedom rights for student journalists at high school and university student newspapers. It is dedicated to student free-press righ ...

. She and her work have been featured in ''Slate'', ''Cosmopolitan'', and the ''Yale Law Journal''. Under her leadership, ''The Markup'' published an investigation that revealed a third of the top 100 hospitals in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

were sharing patients' personal data with

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

, which led to both the social media company and several hospitals involved being sued under the

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA or the Kennedy– Kassebaum Act) is a United States Act of Congress enacted by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 21, 1 ...

Recognition

In 2016, she was named as a "40 Under 40 Rising Star" by the ''New York Law Journal''. In 2017, she was a finalist for the

International Bar Association The International Bar Association (IBA), founded in 1947, is a bar association of international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. The IBA currently has a membership of more than 80,000 individual lawyers and 190 bar associat ...

Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year Award. In 2018, Syed received the inaugural Rising Star Award from the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Syed, Nabiha Marshall Scholars Yale Law School alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni American women lawyers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people BuzzFeed people 21st-century American women American people of Pakistani descent