Forde Campbell – specialist commercial, technology, intellectual property and media law firm – joins forces with Lewis Silkin


Directors Mathew Forde, Rory Campbell and Katey Dixon join Lewis Silkin's growing Northern Ireland practice (N.I.) LLP as partners


Read the full press release here or visit the Lewis Silkin Northern Ireland landing page to find out more.





General Data Protection Regulation


As a commercial law firm specialising in IT, tech law, and the internet, our lawyers deal with data collection and use on a daily basis.

 

If data used by our clients is personal data, we advise on the best way to secure their commercial aims while complying with the Data Protection Act, the Privacy Electronic Communications Regulations (as amended), the new General Data Protection Regulation and the incoming Data Protection Bill 2017.

We understand that data protection is about balancing positive commercial exploitation of data against an individual's right to safeguard their personal data.

 

We also understand that the need to make this balance has come into much sharper focus with the GDPR's implementation from May 2018. The 1998 DPA contained much of the same content as the GDPR - but most businesses only encountered it in a reactive situation such as a data breach or a data subject's complaint.

 

From May 2018, the game changes - a business needs to state openly how it complies from the get- go. Businesses now need to do much more to show that they understand what data they hold, how they use it, and how they comply with data protection law.

 

We understand that not every one of our clients comply. We think our skill is in blending our knowledge of compliance requirements in-depth understanding of our client's businesses. The result: helping the client towards compliance, while maintaining commercial aims and the "user experience" as intact as possible.

 

We advise:

  • IT services providers on data protection issues as data processors in multi-million pound outsourcing contracts
  • Internet web aggregators on their collection, storage and distribution of online customer data
  • Start-ups on data protection from the start, to embed the GDPR's aim to make data protection a cultural consideration for every business
  • Service suppliers on what to do when presented with a thirty page data protection compliance document by their larger customers
  • Worldwide business intelligence distributors on journalist and public interest exemptions from data protection laws
  • Public and private sector clients on the proper way to handle Subject Access Requests
  • Northern Irish FDIs on the sharing of EU personal data with their international parent companies, with a particular emphasis on how to share data between the UK and the US
  • NDPBs, NGOs and charities on their collection and processing of personal data, including in relation to sensitive personal data relating to the Troubles
  • Software developers on ways by which "privacy by design" can be used to minimise personal data use and risk, or to aggregate collected data to a level where it's no longer personal data
  • Businesses of every shape, nationality and size on the terms of their contracts, policies and protocols, and internal business cultures on how best to do what they want to do while staying within the data protection law.

 

Katey Dixon and Rory Campbell regularly write and talk on the full range of data protection matters. Do feel free to contact either of them on katey@fordelaw.com and rory@fordelaw.com or phone at 02890897610.

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Forde Campbell LLC,
1-3 Lombard Street, Belfast
Northern Ireland, BT1 1RB

02890 897610
9am - 5:30pm Monday to Friday