Bio

Nabiha Syed is the chief executive officer of The Markup, an award-winning media startup that builds technology to investigate how technology is reshaping our world. Nabiha has been described as “one of the best emerging free speech lawyers” by Forbes magazine. As BuzzFeed's first newsroom lawyer, she oversaw high-stakes litigation, including the ''Steele Dossier'' litigation, as well as select international, security, and cross-company strategic initiatives. Prior to that, she was a lawyer at Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, a leading media law firm, and the First Amendment Fellow at The New York Times. Nabiha has tackled First Amendment issues at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; represented asylum-seekers in south Texas; counseled on whether to publish hacked material; and advised two presidents on free speech in the digital age. For her work, Nabiha was recognized by the NAACP as a digital civil rights leader in 2023, and by Fast Company for leading a ''most innovative'' nonprofit in 2022. For her legal work, she named a “40 Under 40 Rising Star” by the New York Law Journal, received an inaugural Reporter's Committee for the Freedom of the Press award, and invited to deliver the Salant Lecture at Harvard. She holds a law degree from Yale Law School and from Balliol College, Oxford University, which she attended as a Marshall Scholar. Nabiha lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two young sons. She is a lifelong Girl Scout, and probably has Thin Mints in her handbag right this minute.