Clifford Chance

London-based Jonathan Kewley deserves credit for the rapid growth of Clifford Chance’s data and tech capabilities: the Magic Circle firm is now one of the strongest UK-headquartered data protection advice providers in the world. That’s quite a feat for a firm that was traditionally best known for its banking and finance clout.

That historic strength in all things financial has not limited the firm. While there are major financial institutions on its books – many of them confidentially – there are also global automotive manufacturers, tech giants, household telecommunications names and more. Alongside Kewley, other key leaders are Simon Persoff in the UK, Dessislava Savova in Paris, Gunnar Sachs in Düsseldorf, Lena Ng in Singapore, Ling Ho in Hong Kong and Devika Kornbacher in New York – the latter joined the practice from Vinson & Elkins.

The firm also appears to have been on a hiring spree from other strong data firms: seven associates and senior associates joined during the relevant research period, among them the aforementioned Kornbacher, as well as partner Zayed Al Jamil from Norton Rose Fulbright and counsel Michael Evans from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

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Investigations

Work highlights

In Spain, Clifford Chance has advised Vodafone on multiple matters before the country’s aggressive data regulator – including on a matter that has involved the enforcer’s second-highest fine to date over issues relating to international transfers and the use of client data for marketing purposes.

On the private disputes side, the firm has long advised News Group Newspapers in the heavyweight and sprawling phone-hacking litigation in the High Court of England and Wales. The group action has had a lengthy and laborious history, including six vacated trials, nearly 40 case management conferences and a slew of judgments and rulings relating to interim applications. Multiple other cases are at a pre-action stage. In a rare regulatory complainant-side job, a large tech company has tapped Clifford Chance to attack a competitor’s data collection and processing practices around the globe.

The firm deserves credit for its work in China, where its local practice features a mix of international and local clients that range from private equity house Permira to social media giant Tencent. The firm has no data partners on the ground in its Beijing office, but Ho in Hong Kong leads the firm’s Chinese efforts, and foreign partners are often involved too. For example, Ho and Milan counsel Andrea Tuninetti Ferrari advised Tencent on the provision of remote services and cloud software certification in a cross-border Chinese/Italian project that ended in early 2022.

The UAE has generated some interesting work and a mandate that highlights Clifford Chance’s strengths in financial services. Senior associate Arun Visweswaran in Dubai has acted for the liquidator of a Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) entity as it deals with multiple requests from regulators for personal information of the insolvent bank’s clients. The work has included engaging with unique features of the DIFC Data Protection Law that relate to data requests from other regulators. Another banking job has seen Persoff advising UK Finance on behalf of the UK banking industry in relation to a project in the ICO sandbox that involves the viability of anti-money laundering-regulated entities sharing data to detect financial crime, and another project considering the viability of sharing the purpose of money transfers between banks to reduce fraud.

In Paris, sole data partner Dessislava Savova spends plenty of time on weighty international projects. She has advised industrial group Legrand on the worldwide launch and implementation of a project that covers more than 140 countries – requiring the navigation of sometimes conflicting regulations and issues triggered by the use of connected objects. Savova additionally has a hand in CNIL activity and has provided compliance advice to a Chinese bank and a US-headquartered tech company. 

Client references

“Clifford Chance is a truly full-service firm, with an enormous range of expertise. The firm covers all industry areas and is able to respond quickly and efficiently.”

“Expert, practical, proactive, helpful, engaging – a pleasure to work with. A fresh and open approach which is collaborative and cooperative.”