California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

This innovative work continues with the new CPRA, for which we are guiding clients through understanding their compliance obligations so that they can be CPRA ready when the law goes into effect. We also advise on the growing number of comprehensive state privacy laws, including the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA), Colorado Privacy Act (CPA), Utah Consumer Privacy Act (UCPA), Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA) and many more.

Our privacy lawyers are well known for deep knowledge of myriad privacy regulations, creative thinking concerning the implementation of the laws, and practical advocacy on matters related to amendments and anticipated changes to the regulations.

Akin released its annual CCPA Report looking back at the second year of civil litigation related to the CCPA and analyzing the more than 200 cases that pushed the interpretive limits of the groundbreaking regulation since its inception.

Policy Focus

Our public law and policy lawyers and advisors in Washington, D.C. and California are key members of our privacy team. We work side-by-side with the policy team to monitor federal and state legislation, update our clients accordingly and advocate on our clients’ behalf.

Parallel Regulatory Enforcement Actions and Data Breach Litigation

When data breaches occur, we counsel clients on how to mitigate liability with regard to data protection issues and defend them in related litigation and in regulatory and congressional investigations. Our practice is a trusted partner for clients’ internal investigations concerning cybersecurity and privacy matters.

We regularly lead data breach and privacy-related investigations, as well as investigation of potential employee misconduct with regard to data, potential corporate espionage and other issues. Our team also has an active and growing practice representing companies in consumer protection matters involving privacy and cybersecurity claims.

Risk-based, Practical and Business-focused Approach to Advice

The privacy statutes could see substantial amendments and other changes in the near future. We equip our clients with up-to-date information to make well-informed and practical business decisions. We do so by:

• Leveraging existing work to apply the current principles:
  • We work to utilize businesses’ existing compliance materials, where possible, to help meet CCPA and CPRA needs, including efforts to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• Facilitating peer collaboration:
  • When both parties are amenable, we facilitate confidential sharing of information between peer institutions. Information transfers through counsel are often more open than in peer-to-peer groups. This helps clients avoid outlier issues.
• Anticipating likely interpretations or potential changes:
  • Some of the most contentious and confusing issues are still up for debate. We work to provide clients insight into which arguments are likely to be more persuasive than others. We empower clients to adopt approaches they find the most practical and supportable.

Training

We have developed privacy and data security training materials and can further tailor those materials to help a business think through effective and efficient preparation.

Harmonizing Privacy Laws

We work to efficiently and effectively harmonize compliance with multiple privacy regimes, including other existing and pending state and federal regulations, GDPR and other international privacy laws.