Overview

Data is a strategic asset for all businesses—and for many, it is a competitive distinction. We work closely with clients to manage, protect and capitalize on their digital assets.

Our Data Governance and Strategy Practice helps organizations capitalize on data-related opportunities and navigate the host of data-related issues critical to long-term success. Just as data touches all aspects of business, our practice brings together business-minded legal expertise from across the firm—including privacy, cybersecurity, technology, M&A, private equity, emerging companies, litigation and dispute resolution, intellectual property, financial services, consumer protection, employment and human rights law.

Expertise across the data life cycle

Governance and planning: From developing strategic plans and policies, to internal enforcement and regulatory investigations, we advise on all aspects of data governance programs.

Acquisition: We guide clients on best practices in pre-investment data hygiene to maximize corporate value and decrease risk. We negotiate agreements for data access and use, payment systems and emerging technologies for data storage such as blockchain and cloud systems.

Protection and security: Our team has deep experience advising on privacy policies and audits of stored data, preparing cybersecurity policies and action plans, negotiating for adequate data security, and advising on contractual and fiduciary consequences of retaining and aggregating data.

Use and processing: We assist clients on mapping data origins, life cycles and permissions for external use; the integration of data controllers with users; international legal compliance; and other strategic initiatives to use data in the course of business, such as credit card and loyalty programs.

Innovation and development: Our team guides businesses in their use of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data models to perform predictive analysis and assess whether resulting data sets and decisions made in reliance on them are lawful and ethical. We also help clients determine ownership and rights to use IP created by AI/machine learning.

Commercialization: We have experience advising clients on using data derived from analytics engines to develop and improve products and services and create data interfaces between products. We guide clients with the buying, selling, and licensing of data streams or analytics services or IoT products derived from data.

Crisis management: We have extensive experience advising organizations on how to prevent, prepare for and respond to cyber incidents, routinely working in collaboration with our clients’ internal and external stakeholders and balancing the competing priorities that arise in these rapidly evolving situations.

Advocacy: We respond on our clients’ behalf to data-related regulatory investigations, including privacy and competition regulators. We also have experience with class action litigation resulting from data breaches, data access requests and user data rights management.