Janel Thamkul drives legal strategy on AI as Deputy General Counsel at Anthropic, a frontier AI lab pioneering safe and responsible deployment of foundation models. She helps Anthropic conduct cutting-edge AI R&D while navigating ethical and regulatory frontiers and guides the organization through rapid scaling and growth. Prior to joining Anthropic, Janel led Google's AI research product counsel team, advising on the development of generative and non-generative AI and other emerging technologies. She also advised teams across the company on AI fairness, safety and responsible innovation governance. Before Google, Janel represented clients in high-stakes IP and business litigation and international arbitration in private practice and externed at US DOJ.