Expertise
Laura has advised a range of global clients across different industries such as media and technology, pharmaceutical, healthcare, sports, and retail services. She is a dual-qualified lawyer having trained and practiced in the United States for eight years before qualifying as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2019.
Laura spent several years working as a US criminal prosecutor before moving into private practice where she litigated both criminal and civil matters. Upon transitioning her career to the UK, Laura worked in-house for a highly successful national UK company operating in a technology-driven, data-intensive setting where data protection and industry-specific regulatory issues were vital to the business. Whist working in-house, she developed a passion for data protection. Having done both contentious and non-contentious work, Laura is an extremely adaptable lawyer.
- Experience
- Drafting, reviewing and advising on data protection terms in commercial contracts to ensure an appropriate risk balance and application of required terms.
- Advising on cross border transfers of data in and out of the EEA and the UK.
- Advising on electronic marketing laws such as PECR and the ePrivacy Directive.
- Assisted and supported the DPO of a utility company in delivering privacy transformation work. This included assessing the client's procedures and policies for compliance/completeness, approach and awareness of the risks and mitigations for data protection compliance, preparing a roadmap for improvement and then uplifting various procedures and policies across the business. Also, assisted on a similar privacy transformation project for an ad agency client.
- Advising a range of organisations on contentious DSARs, including technology organisations, campaigning organisations, retailers, and a high-profile football club.
- Advising on data breaches, including assessing if an incident amounts to a personal data breach and, if so, is the incident notifiable to relevant regulators such as the ICO and/or impact individuals.
- Liaising and drafting written correspondence with regulators such as the Information Commissioner’s Office.
- Drafting Data Protection Impact Assessments, privacy and cookies policies and other necessary data protection policies and procedures.
- Advising a leading retailer on its improvement programme for data protection compliance, including breach assessment and data subject rights handling.
- Education
- 2007, Bachelor of Arts from Rhode Island College, USA
- 2010, Juris Doctor degree from Roger Williams University - School of Law, USA
Laura Welch
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