Paul Lanois

Paul is a Director at Fieldfisher and is based in the Silicon Valley (California), advising clients on information governance, data protection, privacy, cybersecurity and digitalization. He helps companies develop privacy and data protection strategies for new products and services and privacy compliance programs for their customer and employee data, while complying with evolving global privacy and data protection laws. In particular, he provides business-oriented privacy and cybersecurity advice to a wide range of clients on domestic and international privacy compliance matters, including issues related to data optimization, social media integrations, mobile apps, Internet of Things and connected devices. He also advises on cybersecurity matters, including on data breaches and incident response, risk assessments, policy development and compliance with industry standards, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

In 2018, Paul was selected for inclusion on the list of arbitrators developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the EU Commission and the Swiss Federal Administration as part of the Privacy Shield Framework Binding Arbitration Program. In 2023, Paul was appointed by the State Bar of California to serve in the State Bar's Consulting Group on the Establishment of a Legal Specialization in Privacy Law (Privacy Law Group), which is tasked with studying the practice area of privacy law to assess whether there is sufficient need and interest to create a specialty, as well as whether the area is sufficiently defined as to create a useful specialization.

Before joining Fieldfisher, Paul was Vice President and senior legal counsel at a leading international bank, Credit Suisse, at its headquarters in Switzerland as well as its Hong Kong office. Before that, Paul worked on technology transactions at large international law firms (Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Allen & Overy and Linklaters) in London (UK), France and Luxembourg, and was an Associate Professor at the University of Cergy-Pontoise Law School in France.

Paul regularly teaches courses on data privacy at the University of California (UC) College of the Law San Francisco ('UC Law SF', formerly known as 'UC Hastings Law School'), as well as the Law Society of Ireland's Certificate in Data Protection Practice program. He is listed in Law.com's "Lawyers on the Fast Track (under 40)" at the 2022 California Legal Awards and named in Security Magazine's “2020 Most Influential People in Security” (2020). He has also been selected as an honoree in Global Data Review’s 2021 "40 Under 40" list, “Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Trailblazer” by the National Law Journal and “Innovative Corporate Counsel” by Law 360.