Following the appointment of Lorna Finlayson to its Financial Regulation practice, Addleshaw Goddard continues to grow its Scottish and Data Protection offerings, hiring Burness Paull’s Head of Privacy, Ross McKenzie.
An accredited data protection specialist, Ross, who joins the firm’s Aberdeen office as a partner, has vast experience in IP, IT, privacy, commercial contracts and information law issues, predominantly in the oil, gas and technology sectors.
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With a masters in IT & Telecommunications law, over the past three years, Ross has been at the helm of Burness Paull’s data protection offering, advising high profile technology and energy clients across the UK.
Ross also advises clients on all stages of the IP development cycle from innovation through to exploitation, and has undertaken a number of audits of software companies servicing the oil and gas sector through the IPO IP Audit scheme, and was the only lawyer in Aberdeen appointed to do so.
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Helena Brown, partner and Head of Data at AG stated; “Data remains a serious source of concern for our clients. With GDPR bringing a heightened awareness of the risks, a continued strong regulation, significant fines for data breaches, coupled with growing cyber security concerns – clients continue to seek advice on how to navigate this evolving landscape.
“The growing importance of this service line, and the rare opportunity to recruit a talented young partner like Ross, who is passionate about data, made this an opportune and additive hire. Ross brings the right blend of technical data and commercial skills and is a perfect fit for our team, ensuring we can fully exploit the numerous new opportunities to deliver data work to either new clients or existing clients.”
This appointment follows that of Lorna Finlayson, consumer finance specialist and former head of Burness Paull’s financial services regulatory practice.
Speaking of the first partner hire in Scotland since the firm’s combination with HBJ in 2017, Amanda Hulme, Head of Financial Services Sector, said: “With more regulatory change in the pipeline, new players emerging and banks transforming what and how they deliver their services, AG is creating important, additional bandwidth, not just to resource existing demand from a large and established portfolio of retail and challenger banks and other FS businesses, but to help us to better service the growing financial services community in Scotland from a local presence. Lorna is a long established specialist, well known in the market and highly respected by clients, and we are delighted to have her as part of our team.”
