Data Protection, Privacy & Cyber Security

We regularly represent many leading companies in a variety of contexts, ranging from compliance counseling to guidance on the legal implications of high-priority business actions to broad-scope representations involving regulatory scrutiny, litigation, and law enforcement interest.

In particular, we regularly counsel clients regarding compliance with laws, regulations, and best practices involving the privacy and security of personal information. We not only evaluate our clients’ existing practices, but also offer forward-thinking strategies to maximize new business opportunities within applicable privacy and security standards. Our counseling and compliance work ranges from assisting clients in conducting privacy and security audits – to assess the ways in which they collect, handle, and protect their customers’ personal information – to advising on potential liability arising out of business practices, human resources procedures, marketing plans, and online activities.

We regularly appear before agencies and relevant regulatory authorities (such as the Hellenic Data Protection Authority and the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy), successfully representing our clients in numerous investigations involving their privacy and data security practices. Drawing upon our extensive experience before agencies and regulatory authorities, we are able to guide our clients confidently and as painlessly as possible through this process, and to achieve favourable outcomes in enforcement actions. Furthermore, we regularly represent numerous clients in lawsuits involving a broad spectrum of related issues.

Our lawyers are distinguished not only by their substantive expertise and advocacy skills, but also by their ability to guide clients through major events and, where needed, develop and implement a prompt and effective crisis-management strategy. In particular, one of our core strengths is the ability to advise clients on relevant privacy and data security rules and to help them structure valid compliance programs.

We have been involved in developing information security policies and conducting assessments of data security practices to comply with legal requirements, regulatory obligations, best practices, and specific agreements with third parties and governmental agencies. Apart from conducting data security audits on behalf of our clients, our expertise also includes refining their information security policies and incident response plans.

Furthermore, our lawyers have helped numerous clients understand and comply with the increasingly complex set of rules governing privacy in the workplace. On a range of issues such as the privacy of employment records and employee monitoring, our lawyers provide valuable advice to help our clients manage human resources and other workplace operations.

In sum, our team advises on a wide range of issues, including:

• Counseling related to compliance with laws and regulations governing data protection, IT security, privacy, social media, online advertising, gaming, and related issues.
• Investigations, litigation and counseling concerning alleged computer fraud, privacy abuse, trade secrets theft, commercial e-mail violations, and data security and network breaches.
• Criminal referrals and responses to regulatory inquiries.
• Network security and privacy audits, internet enforcement and compliance programs, and information security due diligence.