Gene is Counsel in Troutman Pepper Locke's Regulatory Investigations, Strategy + Enforcment (RISE) practice group, where he assists clients in AI, cybersecurity, and privacy matters, including compliance, incident response, regulatory investigations and litigation. Prior to joining Troutman in 2023, Gene served as Senior Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Computer Crime Section in the Office of the Attorney General of Virginia and as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern and Western District of Virginia for 20 years.

Gene has assisted scores of clients, including small, mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies, in assessing cybersecurity and privacy policies for legal compliance, developing AI implementation policies, and navigating federal and state regulatory investigations. As a regulator, he reviewed thousands of data breach incidents and investigated hundres of cybersecurity, privacy, and consumer protection violations, including as part of multistate Attorneys General teams. He led reform of Virginia's privacy and computer crime laws, having drafted and shepherded dozens of successful bills involving data breach notification, electronic records, identity theft, computer trespass, and child exploitation statutes, among others. In his supervisory capacities, he led the professional development of attorneys and computer forensic examiners, overseeing over 1,000 prosecutions and computer forensic investigations for complex criminal cases in Virginia.

Gene received his J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law, and his B.A., magna cum laude, from James Madison University.