Dena M. Castricone, CIPP/US, CIPM

Biography

Dena M. Castricone, CIPP/US, CIPM is a highly regarded privacy and healthcare attorney with more than 23 years of experience guiding healthcare organizations and businesses through complex legal and regulatory challenges. As the founder of DMC Law, she brings a powerful combination of in-house leadership and law firm experience to deliver practical, strategic counsel.

Before founding DMC Law, Dena served as General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer at one of the nation’s largest federally qualified health centers, where she led legal strategy and enterprise-wide privacy and compliance initiatives. She previously spent the majority of her career at Murtha Cullina LLP, where she was a partner and chaired the firm’s Privacy and Cybersecurity Group. Dena began her legal career clerking for the Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and also teaches Health Information Privacy and Security Law at Quinnipiac University School of Law.

Dena represents healthcare providers, including FQHCs, behavioral health clinics, multispecialty groups, and small private practices, as well as telehealth and health tech companies in navigating complex healthcare and health privacy legal requirements. She partners with clients to deliver practical, business-minded guidance on federal and state privacy laws, including HIPAA and 42 CFR Part 2, and designs tailored compliance programs, policies, training, and breach response strategies.

Dena advises providers on the full spectrum of regulatory and operational challenges, including licensure, Medicare and Medicaid compliance, telehealth, use of AI, contracting, and risk management. She is a trusted advocate in government investigations and proceedings before state and federal administrative agencies and is particularly known for her work with behavioral health providers.

She also counsels health technology companies across the product lifecycle, helping them build scalable, compliant operations while confidently navigating evolving privacy, data security, and healthcare regulatory requirements.

Dena’s work has been widely recognized for excellence in healthcare and privacy law:

• Named a Super Lawyer in Healthcare, 2024 and 2025
• AV Preeminent rated by Martindale Hubbell since 2022
• Health Information Management Advocacy Award, Massachusetts Health Information Management Association (2022)
• Solo and Small Firm Innovator Award, Connecticut Law Tribune (2022)
• Recognized as a “Go To Thought Leader” in privacy and cybersecurity by the National Law Review (2018)
• Fellow of the American Bar Association (2026)
• James W. Cooper Fellow, Connecticut Bar Foundation (2016)

She is a certified Privacy Law Specialist through the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), an American Bar Association accredited designation (but not recognized in Connecticut), and holds the IAPP’s CIPP/US and CIPM certifications.

Dena is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation. She’s a member of the American Bar Association, American Health Law Association, Connecticut Bar Association (co-chair of the Privacy and Cybersecurity Committee), and the IAPP.

Dena is also deeply committed to public service. She was appointed by the Governor to the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board in 2015, where she served for ten years, including five as Chairperson, advancing transparency and accountability in government.