K&L Gates LLP occupies a unique place in the market with its focus on media and entertainment clients and its impressive track record in handling matters for French professional associations, including those representing communication agencies, advertising players and online publishers. Practice heads E. Drouard and Claude-Etienne Armingaud are well versed in cross-border matters as demonstrated by their frequent involvement in matters involving multinational companies, particularly clients from the US and Asia. Instructions relating to GDPR compliance also account for a significant portion of the workload. The practice also offers clients the use of artificial intelligence tools to facilitate document analyses, knowledge management and document drafting. While the tools are employed across the board, they are particularly beneficial in litigation through the improved management of document evidence.

Testimonials

The data protection team can be noted for its outstanding quality, reputation and high responsiveness. With their international network, in-depth knowledge of the market, the technology and their legal strength it is an excellent firm to go to for data protection matters.

Really pleasant team to work with. Responsive and team players.

The K&L Gates privacy team in France has a lot of knowledge regarding cross-border privacy issues.

Claude-Etienne Armingaud is a true data protection thought leader. With his in-depth knowledge of the market, technology and his legal strength he is the person to go to for all data protection matters. He is an expert in the fields of new technological areas including fintech, blockchain and the internet of things where he combines his extensive data protection knowledge with his market and technological experience.

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Practice head(s):Claude-Etienne Armingaud

Testimonials

‘The team is well versed and up to date on the current standards and practices. Team members are all very flexible in their availability and very responsive’.           

‘The team provides sharp advices and has great sector industry knowledge’.

‘The team has in-depth expertise and great ability to anticipate future legislation’

‘Claude Etienne Armingaud is more than a lawyer; he is a trusted partner who knows his own limits and is very friendly’.

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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the world and cause unprecedented health and economic challenges, technological measures, once thought extreme, are now being deployed for the purposes of contact tracing, infection tracking, and quarantine compliance. While the search for the right tracking app and software development kits continues, the European Union (EU) is still far from finding a consensus on harmonized model and functionalities. Nevertheless, it is already clear that while app design may be the end result, a complex process of regulatory compliance, risk management and ethics checks, and balances lie ahead.

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Approaching its second anniversary this month, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has never been as relevant as in these unprecedented COVID-19 times. While several countries are considering the implementation of contact tracing apps, a consensus has seemed to surface on subjecting their use to a voluntary basis. The notion of “consent” remains therefore the cornerstone (albeit not the only one) of the European data protection framework.

In that regard, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) issued a revised take on one of the first guidelines published by its predecessor, the WP29, in April 2018 (available here, which itself built upon the WP29 pre-GDPR interpretation of consent under Opinion 15/2011, dated 13 July 2011), taking into consideration the difficulties encountered by the stakeholders in the operational implementation of GDPR compliance. These clarifications come at a time where discrepancies in interpreting what constitutes valid “consent” emerge between various Member States’ Supervisory Authorities, especially as applicable to the use of cookies and other tracking technologies (together, “cookies”).

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K&L Gates ranked “Highly Recommended” with Claude-Etienne Armingaud.

Source: Leaders League

K&L Gates ranked with Claude-Etienne Armingaud.

Source: Leaders League

K&L Gates ranked “Highly Recommended – Band 1” with Claude-Etienne Armingaud.

Source: Leaders League

K&L Gates ranked “Recommended” with Claude-Etienne Armingaud.

Source: Leaders League

K&L Gates ranked “Recommended – Band 2” with Claude-Etienne Armingaud.

Source: Leaders League

Honored & humbled to be ranked in Leaders_league in the many areas our K&L Gates team has been relentlessly pushing boundaries – thanks to clients & colleagues for their continued trust!