Overview
Michelle Zhu is an associate at WSHB based in the San Francisco Bay Area and a member of the firm’s national Cybersecurity and Data Privacy team in Westport, Connecticut. Michelle advises clients on fast-evolving privacy and cybersecurity matters, including data breaches, pixel tracking, online analytics, and other emerging privacy disputes. Her practice focuses on class action defense, breach response coordination, and evaluating notification obligations under laws such as HIPAA, CPRA, CIPA, and VPPA. She also guides organizations and insurance carriers through ransomware events, business email compromise, and other security incidents, and defends clients in complex technology-related commercial litigation.
In an era shaped by AI and accelerating digital innovation, Michelle is committed to helping clients protect business integrity, mitigate legal and regulatory risks, and maintain consumer trust.
Prior to joining WSHB, Michelle represented consumers in high-profile privacy and data breach class actions, contributing to settlements totaling hundreds of millions of dollars (See e.g., In re Fred Hutchinson Data Breach Litigation, Case No. 23-2-24266-1 (Wash. Sup. Ct.); In re Panera Data Security Litigation, Case No. 4:24-cv-00847-HEA (E.D. Mo.); Baker et al. v. SLT Lending SPV, Inc. d/b/a Sur La Table, Case No. 2:23-cv-00190-GSL-AZ (N.D. Ind.)). Previously, she specialized in tax controversy at one of the largest accounting firms in the world, advising Fortune 500 clients on complex regulatory and dispute matters. Her earlier roles across government, military, and business organizations—such as the California Attorney General’s Office, the U.S. Air Force JAG Corps, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, as well as the Wikimedia Foundation—provided her with broad experience in health law litigation, copyright and trademark disputes, and criminal prosecution.
Michelle holds a B.A. in Psychology from UC Davis and earned her J.D. from UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings), where she received the Outstanding Pro Bono Distinction. She values diverse perspectives across cultures and was awarded the CALI Award for her comparative legal analysis of abortion laws in Asia. She also served as a staff editor and board member of the Hastings Journal on Gender and the Law.
Beyond her legal practice, Michelle has long been an advocate with empathy. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, she published her second novel at age sixteen to raise awareness about mental health—an experience that continues to inform her commitment to thoughtful and human-centered legal practice.
In her free time, Michelle enjoys reading, writing, flying through aerial yoga and dance, and unwinding with her sassy, dog-souled kitty, Snowffie.
Credentials
Education
- University of California Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings) (J.D., 2022)
- University of California, Davis (B.A., 2017)
Licensed to Practice in
- California
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California