Ronald L. Plesser, partner and chair of the Electronic Commerce and Privacy Practice Group at Piper Rudnick LLP, died of an apparent heart attack on November 18.
According to the Direct Marketing Association, Plesser played a leading role in the development of government information and privacy law over three decades. As a trial attorney with the Center for Study of Responsive Law in the early 1970s, he compiled a comprehensive catalog of the shortcomings of the 1966 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), working closely with Congress and press groups to draft and enact the 1974 amendments, which made it easier for the public to gain access to government records.
He will be remembered for his leadership on landmark federal privacy statutes. During the last 25 years, he worked for privacy and civil liberties values in the age of computer databases, the revolutionary development of new communications technologies, and the Internet.
He is survived by his wife of 22 years, Barbara Gould, of Washington, D.C., his children Jeremy Daniel and Michelle Dianne, his brother Andrew, sister Lori, and mother Eunice.
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