Data & information

With increasing regulatory and commercial pressure on the use of information, virtually every organisation needs to address data protection, confidentiality, data security, data breaches and freedom of information as part of their compliance and risk management policies and procedures. The law in this area is complex and diverse, and with heightened media attention on data breaches coupled with increased regulatory powers and potential fines, it’s important that businesses recognise and understand their duties with regard the use and storage of information.

The data protection and information law team at Speechly Bircham are recognised as being leaders in their field, with team leader, Robert Bond being named as one of the top 20 global experts in ComputerWorld, published in the US.

As well as providing contentious and non-contentious advice to both growing and established companies, the team is recognised for providing support that goes beyond straight-forward legal services.  We provide consultancy services, train and educate our clients to ensure they comply with the rules.  As a result, many clients recognise us as their trusted advisers in this area.

Our breadth of experience and passion for the subject of data and information means the team is well placed to provide co-ordinated and competitively priced international services. We have the capacity and understanding to compete at the highest level on knowledge, commercial solutions and quality of leading edge advice.

Examples of our experience include:

• acting for a Fortune 100 conglomerate on a range of data protection and related compliance issues for the legal teams in US, UK and EMEA, tackling laws and regulations in over 60 countries
• auditing data protection compliance for a Fortune 100 construction and engineering company in over 30 countries worldwide
• advising a US medical device company on the EU data protection aspects of its $7.6 billion acquisition by a German publicly quoted pharmaceutical company. Our work included advising both companies on further global data protection and information security issues such as ethical reporting and whistleblower laws
• working with the employment group of a global pharmaceutical company to address a range of international data protection issues relating to staff and former staff during a protracted set of claims
• advising a global financial services company on a range of data protection, information security and freedom of information issues around global outsourcing, trading platforms and use of social media for business.