Janel Thamkul

Janel Thamkul is an AI and emerging technology lawyer who spent almost two decades guiding teams building transformative technology through the legal and ethical questions that come with it. She most recently served as Deputy General Counsel at Anthropic, where she joined as a founding member of the legal function and built the teams that carried the company through its rapid scaling. Before Anthropic, she led product counsel for Google AI. In 2026 she received a Burton Award "Legends in Law" honor, the first DGC recognized in the award's history. Janel now works independently at the intersection of AI, law, and policy and advises founders and startups and builds tools that expand access to justice.