Shannon Togawa Mercer
SHANNON Togawa Mercer, who was born on Saipan, is now a cybersecurity counsel in Washington, D.C.
She works with WilmerHale, an international law firm that also has headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts.
Mercer is the daughter of longtime Guam attorney, the late Traylor T. Mercer, and Jo Ann Togawa Mercer of Saipan. Her grandmother is Consolacion Cabrera Togawa, a retired land title and claims expert who was honored by the CNMI Senate for her long years in government service.
At WilmerHale, Mercer, 33, advises clients on matters related to cybersecurity, privacy and data protection laws. She also works closely with clients on incident preparedness and compliance with regulatory requirements.
Togawa said, “I congratulate her. I feel proud of her, her mother, Jo Ann and her late father Traylor. Her parents really supported her to further her education.”
According to her grandmother, Mercer left Saipan at a very young age with her parents and attended St. John School on Guam.
Mercer graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2017. She obtained her AB in Politics, also cum laude, from Princeton University in 2011.
She had been on the Dean’s List, and was an Exceptional Pro Bono Pledge Honoree as well as editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Journal of International Law
In law school, Mercer completed legal internships for the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff; the United States Trade Representative, Office of the General Counsel; and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Prior to attending law school, she was an associate at a management consulting firm and a management associate in the research department and the department of corporate counsel at the world’s largest hedge fund.
