Frustrated that people were making the law without asking for her opinion, Cathy Gellis gave up a career in web development in Silicon Valley and Europe to become a lawyer to help them not make it badly, especially regarding technology. A former aspiring journalist and longtime fan of civil liberties, her legal practice includes defending the rights of Internet users and advocating for policy that protects speech and innovation. Examples of her work include defending anonymous speakers, representing an organization of college webcasters before the Copyright Royalty Board, and authoring numerous amicus briefs, including in litigation regarding Section 230, the DMCA, and related online speech issues, as well as cases challenging NSA Internet surveillance.

When not advising clients on platform liability, copyright, trademark, privacy, or cybersecurity, and how to stand up against bad policy, she frequently writes and speaks about these subjects and more for outlets such as the Daily Beast, Law.com, TWiT.tv and Techdirt.com, where she is a regular contributor. She has a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in Mass Communications and Sociology, where she studied information technology and user adoption trends, and a J.D. from Boston University, with a concentration in intellectual property.