US, UK, and Europe
In preparation for the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a diversified Fortune 100 multinational instructed Victoria van der Vaart to appoint two General Counsels for Privacy. The company already had one experienced lawyer leading privacy, who was subsequently appointed as Chief Privacy Officer. Both roles would have a broad Europe, Middle East, and Africa remit, and the successful candidates could be based in any of the company’s European hubs.
At this time, the data privacy talent pool was still nascent. Many candidates claimed to be experts in the upcoming GDPR, but we had to identify, assess, and interview a large number of candidates to find those with the best substantive expertise. Our client was not looking for operational compliance lawyers but lawyers with a background in technology transactions who had then moved into data privacy. We conducted a pan-European search across multiple industry sectors to identify, assess and secure the best candidates. This resulted in a shortlist of eight candidates, and our client was able to make two General Counsel Privacy hires in five weeks.
As a result of this work, the following year, we were later tasked with hiring an additional General Counsel Privacy to be based in the US and focus on the Americas. We subsequently finalised the team with two further hires in the United Kingdom who undertook global General Counsel Data Privacy roles, again reporting to the US-based Chief Privacy Officer. All hires were made within seven weeks, helping our client to build and scale its global privacy program quickly.
