Lydia F. de la Torre
Meet our Founder
Lydia F. de la Torre is a dual-qualified attorney (US/EU) with expertise in privacy law, data protection law, and cybersecurity law.
Founding Golden Data Law is the culmination of her extensive experience as a practicing attorney, recognized privacy expert, California Privacy Protection Agency Board Member, law school professor and blog writer/editor.
Short Bio
Born and raised in Spain, Lydia was licensed as an attorney there and started her career working for the large Spanish law firm Garrigues as a corporate and tax attorney. After obtaining her L.L.M. at Santa Clara University School of Law in IP, she gained valuable experience working in the privacy law departments at both EBay and PayPal. Her long-range goal, however, was to ultimately start her own firm.
With an eye toward eventually accomplishing her goal, Lydia worked in-house with organizations ranging from pre-IPO start-ups to well-established Fortune 500 companies in a multitude of industries, including e-commerce, fintech and computer hardware. This experience provided her with a direct understanding of client concerns.
Most recently, Lydia was of counsel at Squire Patton Boggs. providing strategic privacy compliance advice related to US and EU privacy, including data protection and cybersecurity law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), other states’ privacy and cyber laws, US financial privacy laws, and marketing and advertising compliance, as well as information security.
Ultimately, Lydia’s training and experience culminated in the establishment of her firm, Golden Data Law where she expertly and effectively guides her clients to enable ethical uses of data for the common good.
Nationally recognized expert
As an expert and influential commentator on data privacy and protection across multiple sectors and geographies, including the GDPR, Lydia has been consulted by diverse stakeholders on the implications of proposed US and California legislation on data privacy and protection, including in relation to CCPA and CPRA.
Lydia is also frequently invited to speak on privacy-related topics, such as the freedom of speech implications of privacy laws, ethics and privacy, the application of privacy laws to blockchain technology, financial privacy laws and the CCPA
Scholar and academic
Lydia is a prolific writer and has been published in a variety of outlets, from mainstream media to privacy and legal publications. She is the co-editor of Golden Data, a Medium publication focused on data laws. Lydia also teaches advanced courses in privacy law.
Milestones and Awards
Career Milestones
March 2021: Lydia de la Torre appointed to California Privacy Protection Agency Board (Santa Clara Law School Press Release)
March 2021: California Officials Announce California Privacy Protection Agency Board Appointments (Senator Atkins Press Release)
November 2020: Daily Journal Recognizes Squire Patton Boggs’ Lydia de la Torre Among California’s 2020 Top Cyber Lawyers (Squire Patton Boggs Press Release)
September 2019: Squire Patton Boggs Enhances Leadership of Global Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice Group and Data Privacy Veteran Lydia de la Torre Joins Squire Patton Boggs (Squire Patton Boggs Press Release)
September 2019: Squire Patton Boggs Hires Former PayPal Privacy and Data Protection Counsel in Palo Alto (The Cybersecurity Law Report.)
March 2019: Expert witness testimony before the California Senate Judiciary Committee at the Informational Hearing on CCPA. Written remarks here.
July 2017: Santa Clara Law hires privacy lawyer Lydia de la Torre as Privacy Law Fellow Squire Patton Boggs (Santa Clara Law School Press Release.)
Awards
The National Law Review: 2020 Go-To Thought Leader — Cybersecurity (California Privacy Law.) The National Law Review’s (NLR) 2020 “Go-To Thought Leadership Awards” recognized 71 respected legal authors selected from a pool of over 20,000 legal news articles published in 2020. The award press release names the Squire Patton Boggs Data Privacy and Security practice for the 2020 Cybersecurity Go-To Thought Leader for contributions related to Privacy legislation in California. My individual NLR award author page can be found here.
Daily Journal: Top Cyber Lawyers 2020 — 11 Nov: Named among California’s top cyber lawyers. In her profile, the Daily Journal noted she is an “authority on the intersection of California privacy laws and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.” Squire Patton Boggs announcement available here: Top California Cybersecurity Lawyer
Santa Clara University: 2012/2013 LL.M. Student of the Year Santa Clara University School of Law
Santa Clara University: Sprint 2013 CALI award for Advertising and Marketing Law. The CALI award is given to the highest scoring student in each law school class.
National Hispanic University: 2006 Outstanding Faculty Award (for teaching Legal Translation and Interpretation)
Credentials and Affiliations
Education
Santa Clara University, School of Law, L.L.M. (2014)
Centro de Estudios Garrigues, LL.M. on EU Tax Law (1996)
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, J.D. (1995)
Bar Admissions
Member of the California Bar since 2011
Member of the Madrid Bar (Spain) since 1997
Languages
English
Spanish
Affiliations
Senior Policy Advisor to Californians for Consumer Privacy since 2018.
Member of the Internet Ethics Advisory Group of the Santa Clara University Markkula Center for Applied Ethics since 2017.
Professional experience prior to founding Golden Data Law
Of Counsel
Squire Patton Boggs (Palo Alto, California) / August 2019 - May 2021
Providing legal advice in the areas of privacy, data protection and & cybersecurity law
Drafting and negotiating contracts and conducting due diligences
Drafting privacy related guidelines, policies, notices and procedures
Senior data protection and privacy counsel
Axiom Legal (Silicon Valley, California) / October 2016 - August 2019
Advised on privacy, data protection and cybersecurity in the context of products, programs, M&As, and contract negotiation and drafted related documents
Lead privacy compliance for customer facing product lines. O
Worked on building data stewardship programs by designing and implemented privacy policies and procedures
Appellate counsel
Sixth District Appellate Program (San Jose, California) / April 2011 - August 2013
Represented clients in criminal appeals
Researched and drafted appellant opening briefs, supplemental briefs, requests, and motions
Senior data protection and privacy counsel
eBay/PayPal (San Jose, California) / September 2013 - September 2016
Designed and provided privacy awareness training
Advised on privacy issues including employee privacy issues
Acted as HIPAA CPO
Lead regulatory engagement in the context of investigatory inquiries
Conducted data protection and privacy impact assessments
Senior Associate
Garrigues Law Firm (Madrid, Spain) / September 1996 - February 2001
Provided legal advice in the areas of privacy, data protection and & cybersecurity law
Conducted due diligence audits and negotiated and implemented M&As
Conducted tax audits, prepared corporate taxes and litigated tax cases
Interviews, quotes and speaking engagements
Interviews and quotes in articles
February 2021: Tech Policy Podcast #288: “The State of Data Privacy Law” interview by Corbin K. Barthold for Tech Freedom.
February 2021: “US deluged CCPA inspired State privacy bills” by Ken Silva for Global Data Review.
February 2021: “ Va. Data Privacy Law Poised To Offer 2nd Model For States” by Allison Grande for Law 360.
February 2021: “Virginia Poised to Be Next State With Consumer Privacy Law” by Jake Holland for Bloomberg Law.
December 2020: “Recording that Workplace Zoom Call? Make Sure Everyone Knows It.” by Andrew Wallender for Bloomberg Law.
December 2020: “California Privacy Agency Board Will Sway Rulemaking, Enforcement” by Jake Holland and Laura Mahoney for Bloomberg Law.
October 2020: “California to vote on privacy proposal in midst of heated debate” by Ken Silva for Bloomberg Law.
October 2020: “Latest CCPA regulation tweaks aimed at making opt-outs easier” by Ken Silva for Bloomberg Law.
July 2020: “CCPA enforcement begins amid state budget crisis” by Ken Silva for Global Data Review .
June 2020: “California AG requests expedited review of CCPA regulations” by Ken Silva for Global Data Review.
September 2019: “How Changes to California’s Data-Privacy Rules Would Affect Employers,” for The Recorder.
September 2019: “CCPA amendments would create independent enforcer” for Global Data Review.
September 2019: “California passes final version of CCPA, but questions remain” for Global Data Review.
April 2019: “Legal and IT Departments Team Up for CCPA, GDPR Privacy Procedures” by Caroline Spiezio for Law.com Corporate Counsel
May 2018: “What developers need to know about Europe’s data privacy rules” by Jeremy Hsu for IEEE Spectrum.
March 2018: “New European Regulations could crush media business models” by Ethan Wolff-MannSenior for Yahoo News.
December 2017: Bloomberg Radio Law Show on UK litigation of Google cases and the potential outcome of class action lawsuits.
Speaker engagements
May 2023: Speaker at PLI Twenty-Fourth Annual Institute on Privacy and Cybersecurity Law 2023 “U.S. Comprehensive State Privacy Laws: California, Virginia, Colorado, Utah and Connecticut” San Francisco and Live Webcast, May 8-9, 2023. Moderated by James Snell (Perkins). Other panelist Stevie DeGroff, (CO AG) Stacey D. Schesser (Director Privacy Unit, CA AG.)
April 2023: Speaker at Cybersecurity Conference 2023, Cleveand State University College of Law. Cleveland OH. April 20-21.
April 2023: Speaker at IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2023 “US Privacy Law at a Crossroads: The Past, Present and Future” Washington DC. Moderated by Elliot Golding (MWE.) Other panelists: Alastair MacTaggart (Californians for Consumer Privacy/CPPA Board), Jules Polonetsky (FPF.)
March 2023: Organizer CeDAR Center Symposium on Data Privacy and Artificial Intelligence “Responsible Innovation at the Intersection of Privacy and Artificial Intelligence: Let’s Start the Conversation…”
September 2022: Speaker at In-Person San Francisco & Silicon Valley KnowledgeNet (Privacy Day at UC Hastings College of the Law)
January 2022: Speaker with Leonardo Cardenas Cervera (Executive Director EDPS) at “A transatlantic discussion for Data Privacy Day.” An online event on transatlantic privacy cooperation moderated by David Hoffman (Duke University) and co-organized by the European Data Protection Supervisor and the California Privacy Protection Agency.
December 2021: Speaker at the Smart Cities, Surveillance and Privacy conference organized by Cleveland Marshal School of Law for the “Assessing and Auditing Smart Technologies” panel moderated by Jonathan Witmer-Rich. The conference brings together government officials, privacy and civil liberties advocates, and other experts to examine the privacy and civil liberties concerns raised by the use of facial recognition and other surveillance technologies and to examine existing models and emerging best practices for how communities can work with state and local government to thoughtfully address them.
November 2021: First Healthcare Research Transatlantic and Trans-European Dialogue conference organized by the University of Valencia. The conference discussed the regulatory challenges of health systems in Europe and the United States related to data protection, Big Data techniques, and artificial intelligence. Hybrid event (at the European Commission Offices in Madrid and online.)
2021: Speaker and Keynote at IAPP Privacy, Security, Risk, 2021. Keynote with Stacey Schesser (CA AG Privacy Unit Diretor) moderated by Donique Shelton. San Diego. Panel on “Data For Good: Empowering Innovation Through Ethical Uses of Data.” Moderated by Alan Friel (SPB.) Other panelists: Barbara Lawler (IAF), Jules Polonetsky (FPF.)
May 2021: Speaker at the Cleveland Marshall School of Law 2021 Cybersecurity and Privacy Conference (virtual) “Will the States Move the Feds on Privacy Legislation? And what does that mean for companies and consumers?” panel. The panel explored recent trends in state and federal privacy policy and what the variety of new laws means for consumers and companies. Moderated by Ariel Fox (senior counsel of Common Sense Media). Other panelists: John Landolfi (Partner, Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease LLP), James Trilling (Senior Attorney, FTC Division of Privacy and Identity Protection), and Hayley Tsukayama (Legislative Activist, Electronic Frontier Foundation.)
December 2020: How the 2020 Elections Will Affect Privacy and Cybersecurity Regulation an event organized by the Los Angeles County Bar Association. Panel moderated by Andrew Lachman and Ryan White. Other panelist: Cam Kerry (Tisch Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institution; Former General Counsel, US Dept. of Commerce) and Travis LeBlanc (Partner, Cooley LLP; Member, U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board).
September 2020: Without a Trace: Where Is Privacy When Conducting COVID-19 Contact Tracing a panel discussion for the American Bar Association Section of Science & Technology Law fifth annual Internet of Things (IoT) National Institute conference. Other panelist:Rafael V. Baca, Partner, Adelante IP Law Group (Moderator) & Mihran Yenikomshian, Vice President, Analysis Group.
September 2020: Encryption as a privacy solution after the invalidation of Privacy Shield an event organized by ISACA. Co-presenter: Ben Poiesz.
August 2020: Schrems II and EU-US data transfers an event organized by the Association of Corporate Growth in Silicon Valley. moderated by Kai Westerwelle (partner Bird&Bird). Other speakers Alisa Bergman (SVP / CPO Adobe) and Lara Bliesner (Senior privacy counsel at Arm.)
July 2020: Cracking the Code: Can Efficient and Effective COVID-19 Tracing & Privacy Co-Exist? an event organized by HIVE Data. Co-presenters: Ben Poiesz and Lauren Kitces.
July 2020: Presentation on the California Consumer Privacy Rights for the Santa Clara County Privacy Champions Meeting with Jael Makagon and Mike Shapiro.
June 2020: “Comparative Privacy Law: A Moderated Panel Discussion” a panel for the International Symposium on Data Privacy: Navigating a Shifting and Complex Regulatory Landscape organized by the Southwestern Institute for International and Comparative Law and the Institute for Law and Technology. Panel moderated by Dr. Susan Karamanian.
June 2020: IV Garrigues Data Day — 1ª sesión with Nelson Remolina Agnarita (Data Protection Superintendent SIC - Colombia), Jonathan Mendoza (Director Data Protection INAI-Mexico), Leonardo Cervera (Director EDPB — EU) and Alejandro Padin Vidal (Chair of Data Protection and Privacy at Garrigues)
May 2020: Navigating Employee Privacy Issues During a Global Pandemic webinar by the Business Law Section and the Labor and Employment Law Section of the California Bar Association. Co-presented with James Cahalan (General Counsel and Director of Global Compliance for PRO Unlimited, which provides contingent workforce management services to Fortune 500 clients in over 60 countries.)
April 2020: Protecting lives and liberty: Smartphone surveillance in the COVID-19 era an event organized by HIVE Data. Co-presenters: Ryan Calo (Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger Associate Professor at the University of Washington School of Law and co-director of the University Tech Policy Lab) and Carl T. Bergstrom (Theoretical and evolutionary biologist and a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.)
March 2020: Future-Proofing Privacy Programs and CCPA Update an IAPP KnowledgeNet event moderated by Mark Aldrich (Senior Counsel, Airbnb.) Co-presenters: Michelle Finneran Dennedy, (CEO, DrumWave), Larry Guo (Corporate Counsel, Rubrik) and Ann Staggs (Senior Counsel, Privacy, Airbnb.)
February 2020: California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) — Impact on Data-Driven Innovation an event organized by HIVE Data. Moderated by Lydia F. de la Torre. Panelist: Stephanie Adamson King (VP, Deputy GC Twitter), Andy Roth (CPO Intuit), Michael Hauser (Global Privacy @ Pinterest), Joseph Ternasky (Privacy and Data Use @ Facebook ), and Robin Andruss (Director of Privacy Governance @ Twilio.)
February 2020: Privacy, Policymakers and the Tech Needed to Protect People panel an RSA panel. Moderated by Lydia F. de la Torre. Panelist: Richard Arney (co-author of the CCPA/Managing Director at BlackRock) and Dimitri Sirota (CEO and Co-Founder of BigID.)
December 2019: The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) a Mozilla Privacy Lab event hosted by Santa Clara Law School. Moderated by Lydia F. de la Torre. Panelist: Eric Dilurio, Hannah Poteat, and Jackie Wilcosz.
November 2019: November Mozilla Privacy Lab moderated by Ivan Rothman. Co-Panelist Eric Dilurio and Francis Fryscak.
October 2019: The “final” California Consumer Privacy Act a Squire Patton Boggs webinar.
August 2019: NIST Draft Privacy Framework an IAPP KnowledgeNet event moderated by Mark Aldrich (Senior Counsel, Airbnb.) Co-presenters: Naomi Lefkowitz (Senior Privacy Advisory and Lead, NIST Privacy Framework), Brad Jones (CISO, Seagate Technology and Jeewon Serrato, CIPP/US (Partner Norton Rose Fulbright.)
June 2019: Argentina FinTech Law 2019 panel on “Medios the Pago.”
May 2019: Keynote speaker presenting on “GDPR in the USA — Is your Organization Ready?” at the IAITAM CXO Conference.
May 2019: Panel on “Ethics & Privacy” during the SCCE Regional Conference. Co-presenter: Adriana Beach (Senior Privacy Counsel 23&Me)
May 2019: “The Privacy and Security Challenges of New Technologies” panel presentation organized for the PLI’s Institute on Privacy and Data Security Law Conference 2019. Co-panelist: Lisa R. Lifshitz and Stephen S. Wu.
April 2019: “Privacy law — who let the data out? Data protection and privacy law in the 2020’s” a panel presentation for the Northern District of California Judicial Conference 2019 moderated by Honorable Beth Labson Freeman. Co-panelist: Travis LeBlanc, Christina Terplan and Lesley Weaver.
March 2019: CCPA v. GDPR panel for Santa Clara Law School event moderated by Dr. Jestlan Hopkins. Co-presenters: Anna Gassot, and Barbara Lawler. Law.com covered the event in an article here.
October 2018: “Open Access, Privacy, Court Records and the Right to be Forgotten” an Santa Clara Law Library, and Faculty Development event.
November 2018: “The CCPA views on the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 — what it means in terms of the future of privacy, businesses and consumers” a panel for the “FORECASTxSCIENCE” event organized by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF.) Co-presenter: Eric Goldman.
November 2018: “Mars Meets Venus: How Do We Balance Innovation and Regulation?” panel moderated by Robin Campbell for the Privacy: The new transformation for the Silicon Valley Squire Patton Boggs event. Co-panelist: Hon. Sean Reyes (Attorney General of Utah); and Rick Arney (Co-author, The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018.)
November 2018: The California Consumers Privacy Act an event organized by the Santa Clara Law School and moderated by Joshua de Larios-Heiman. Co-panelist: Alastair MacTaggart and Lindsey Tonsager. Recording available here.
October 2018: “Potential Impact of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018” panel organized by Today’s General Counsel Institute’s for the exchange eDiscovery San Francisco Conference.
October 2018: “The California Consumers Privacy Act of 2018”panel organized for the NetDiligence Conference Cyber Risk Summit in Santa Monica.
September 2018: “The California Consumer Privacy Act: What impacts can be expected on companies and consumers throughout the US?” panel organized for Sedona Conference (WG 11) summit.
February 2018: Bridging the Privacy gap: GDPR opening remarks for the symposium held in Santa Clara University organized by Santa Clara Journal of International Law.
Academic profile
Academic positions
Santa Clara Law School, Affiliated Faculty teaching advance privacy law course, 2017-present
Santa Clara Law School, Inaugural Privacy Fellow and Co-director of the privacy certificate program, 2017-2019
National Hispanic University, Affiliated Faculty teaching translation and interpretation courses, 2003-2009
Teaching interests
Primary: Privacy, data protection and cybersecurity with a comparative law focus
Secondary: Data ethics and internet ethics
Teaching experience
Santa Clara University College of Law
Comparative Privacy / 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (Guest lecturer on privacy and AI) / 2018
International IP (Guest lecturer on cross-border data transfers) / 2018
Santa Clara University Business School
Mobile marketing (Guest lecturer on privacy in the mobile space) / 2019
National Hispanic University
Spanish Grammar / 2003, 2004
Translation Theory and Technique / 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Legal Interpretation / 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Medical Interpretation / 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Publications
California Lawyers Association - Antitrust, UCL and Privacy Section Competition Journal: Compliance with the California Privacy Act in the Workplace: What employers need to Know (Fall 2019, Vol 29, №2)
ABA Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Newsletter Election 2020: Looking Forward to What a Biden Presidency May Mean for Data Privacy and Data Privacy Litigation (January 8, 2021)
Law 360: What Biden Presidency May Mean For Data Privacy Litigation (November 30, 2020)
Law 360: How Calif. Privacy Rights Act Could Shape Privacy Landscape (June 30, 2020)
California Lawyers Association - Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Online Blog:What is personal information under CCPA? (October 2019)
Practicing Law Institute: Blockchain: Challenges and solutions for compliance with GDPR (May 2019)
SSRN: A guide to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2108 (2019)
Golden Data Blog (a Medium Legal Blog about data laws): Hundreds of articles on privacy, data protection and cybersecurity topics with a particular focus on California privacy laws. See sample page here
Squire Patton Boggs Blogs: Published dozens of high quality articles to the firm blogs earning the 2020 Go-To Thought Leader (Data Privacy and Cybersecurity) National Law Review award. See award here.
Schollar conferences
Internet “Works in Progress” Conference 2019 (attended and presented concept paper on “Approaches to regulating technology through data: Europe v. US”)
Privacy Law Scholars Conference 2019 (attended and introduced “Intellectual privacy for European citizens who receive personalized news” a paper by Sarah J Eskens)
Internet “Works in Progress” 2018 (attended)
Privacy Law Scholars Conference 2018 (attended)