Team size: 120

What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have recently been involved in?

Over the last year I have advised on, negotiated, and closed a wide range of commercial transactions for consulting, strategy, and technology services with Fortune 100 clients, including the largest technology, healthcare, and energy companies in the world, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue. My team also acts as product counsel for Accenture’s Cloud First organisation – helping to evaluate and prepare new cloud computing services, products, and offerings for market, with varying deal structures (including consulting services and software-as-a-service) in different geographies and different industries, which requires awareness of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, edge computing, and blockchain, as well the evolving regulatory landscape in these areas.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

Corporate legal teams, particularly the contracting function, will need to significantly increase their understanding of data privacy law and their ability to review and respond to data privacy focused documents. With software comes the frictionless transfer of data, including personal data, yet most organisations still have siloed contracting and privacy functions. This leads to more back-and-forth, more time wasted, more confusion, and more disgruntled business colleagues. In my opinion, every transactional lawyer should understand current data privacy regulations and be able to negotiate relevant provisions and agreements, like a data processing agreement. Privacy terms will be as common as a limitation of liability moving forward, so it is no longer justifiable to outsource each privacy review to a separate subject matter expert.

What are some of the main legislative or regulatory changes that have impacted you?

Due to the ever-changing world of data privacy regulations and developments like the Schrems II judgment of 2020, much of my commercial deal work this year has required significant focus on data processing and personal data transfers. I have quarterbacked numerous complex data processing agreements and data transfer agreements to ensure that a valid transfer mechanism is in place for any personal data in scope for a product or service. Likewise, many US states (for example, Colorado, Virginia) have recently passed privacy legislation, requiring us to review and update documents to confirm necessary consumer rights and business obligations.