[5] A Marshall Scholar, Syed co-founded the Media Freedom and Information Access legal clinic at Yale Law School,[6] of which she is a graduate and a visiting fellow.
[11] Under her leadership, The Markup published an investigation that revealed a third of the top 100 hospitals in the United States were sharing patients' personal data with Facebook, which led to both the social media company and several hospitals involved being sued under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
[13] In 2017, she was a finalist for the International Bar Association Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year Award.
[14] In 2018, Syed received the inaugural Rising Star Award from the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press.
[15] Also that year, Nabiha delivered the Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press at the Harvard Kennedy School.