Data Governance and Strategy

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.

Overview

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 skills from across the firm to cover the entire data life cycle.

We work collaboratively with members of our Privacy, Technology, M&A, Private Equity, Emerging Companies, Disputes and Investigations, Intellectual Property, Financial Services, Consumer Protection and Employment teams to provide full service to our clients.

Primary Contacts

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Areas of Service

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.
Cybersecurity
Our team provides counsel 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.
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Using 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 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. We also help clients determine ownership and rights to use IP created by AI/machine learning.
Commercialization
We advise 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 advise 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.
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Advocacy
We respond on our clients’ behalf to data-related regulatory investigations, including by privacy and competition regulators. We also have experience with class action litigation resulting from data breaches, data access requests and user data rights management.
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Whatever challenge we came across, [Torys] had dealt with something similar and had advice ready for the circumstances.

— Chambers Canada, 2023

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