My team advises the enterprise on contractual and regulatory data use constraints, compliance and best practices (including GDPR).
You have to think in many dimensions when it comes to data, which runs through the heart of our business and modern society. It’s a volatile, complex and ambiguous area, where the law and ethics, business and technology merge. The GDPR, in addition, has brought the citizen into the middle of this Rubik’s Cube.
I think too often data strategies are conceived in isolation of the constraints, only to hit those constraints with some momentum down the track. At this stage, risk-based decisions are made that might have been avoided through a small tweak at the outset of the development journey.
[External counsel] need to be able to reduce complexity into a cogent storyline and ideally work with graphics on complex problems. No one has time to read five-page essays and footnotes. They need to be able to deliver a message flexibly based on audience and preferred format. They need to be comfortable with project-based fee limits. And they need to do their homework to understand our complex business model.
Most recently, [a particularly proud moment was] chaperoning the huge GDPR implementation effort. Generally, building a culture of innovation, curiosity and elegant problem-solving. I truly admire my team.