Joshua Carlson, Attorney at Law
Joshua Carlson is a licensed privacy and technology attorney with two decades of experience advising organizations of every size — from startups to Fortune 50 healthcare and retail companies — on data privacy, data security, and lawful compliance. His practice focuses on operationalizing privacy law: turning regulatory text into compliance programs that work for the business, not against it.
Experience
Joshua has advised some of the world’s largest consultancies and the clients, including PwC and KPMG, and represented enterprises such as Target, Best Buy, Medtronic, AbbVie, Accenture/Avanade, 3M and countless others on privacy compliance, breach response, and regulatory matters.
He has performed dozens of Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) across industries and continents, working with the OneTrust platform and others. His engagements have spanned heavily regulated industries (healthcare, financial services, energy) and state and federal government agencies.
He works comfortably with the full range of stakeholders — Boards, CEOs, CIOs, CIPOs, CISOs, government regulators, and the developers writing the code — translating between legal, technical, and executive perspectives.
Credentials and certifications
- Minnesota State Bar
- Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
- Certified Information Privacy Professional / Government (CIPP/G)
- PCI Internal Security Assessor (PCI-ISA)
- International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)
- University of Minnesota — Carlson School of Management
Bar service
- Past Chair — Minnesota State Bar Computer Technology Law Section
- Past Co-chair — Minnesota State Bar Security/Privacy Subcommittee
- Ethics Investigator — Minnesota State Bar 4th District Judicial Ethics Committee
Approach
Privacy is more than a compliance checklist. Regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and the Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act carry real consequences for non-compliance, and policies, contracts, and regulatory filings are legal documents that need lawyer-grade rigor. The Carlson Firm builds programs that withstand regulatory scrutiny while remaining operationally workable — because a compliance program nobody can follow isn’t a compliance program at all.