Firm Showcase: ICT Legal Consulting

The firm

ICT Legal Consulting is an international law firm founded in 2011 with offices in Milan, Bologna, Rome and Amsterdam, and a presence in 19 other countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the USA).

The firm was established by Paolo Balboni and Luca Bolognini, who have successfully assembled a network of trusted, highly skilled lawyers specialised in the fields of information and communication technology, privacy, data protection/security and intellectual property (IP) law.

The firm’s professionals regularly advise multinational companies on legal and technical issues, offering a strategic and holistic approach to help it best meet the needs of its clients.

The firm’s goal is to turn legal advice into a competitive advantage for its clients.

Founding partner Paolo Balboni and his team

Balboni, PhD, is a top-tier European ICT, privacy and data protection lawyer and, together with his team, serves as data protection officer (DPO) for multinational companies. He is lead auditor BS ISO/IEC 27001:2013 (IRCA Certified).

Balboni and his team are specialised in the fields of personal data protection, data security, information and communication technology (ICT), and IP law. They have considerable experience in information technologies including cloud computing, big data, analytics and the internet of things, media and entertainment, healthcare, fashion, retail, insurance, banking, and anti-money laundering.

Balboni is the president of the European Privacy Association based in Brussels and the cloud computing sector director and responsible for foreign affairs at the Italian Institute for Privacy in Rome, Italy. He is involved in European Commission studies on new technologies and participated in the revision of the European Commission proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation. Balboni also played an active role in the drafting of the European Commission Data Protection Code of Conduct for Cloud Service Providers.

He co-chairs the privacy level agreement (PLA) working group of Cloud Security Alliance and has acted as the legal counsel for the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) projects on Cloud Computing Risk Assessment, Security and Resilience in Governmental Clouds, and Procure Secure: A guide to monitoring of security service levels in cloud contracts. As a frequently invited speaker, he has spoken on the legal aspects of ICT, privacy and data protection matters at more than 30 international conferences around the world in the last two years. He is a regularly invited expert on the revision of the European Commission proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation.

Balboni is the author of the book Trustmarks in E-Commerce: The Value of Web Seals and the Liability of their Providers (TMC Asser Press), and of numerous journal articles published in leading European law reviews. He is a visiting expert at Maastricht University European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity and research associate at Tilburg University. He speaks Italian, English and Dutch fluently and has good knowledge of French, Spanish, and German.

A holistic and business-oriented approach

The firm combines very specialised and integrated legal and IT/security expertise to offer its clients – typically multinational companies – with practical and business-oriented solutions. For example, it is capable of tackling privacy, data protection/security from all angles which in turn allows for increased return on investment.

The firm’s legal and security professionals are trained to provide thorough advice based on internationally recognised risk assessment methodologies, giving us a competitive advantage in the relatively new and rapidly growing market.

The firm’s values

• Dedication to its clients: The firm’s goal is to go beyond the technical and personal requirements of its customers and to create highly trusted relationships with all partners with whom it works.
• Passion for the subject: Interest in what the firm does is the basis of the passion that allows it to excel in its work and to offer consistently great commitment and attention to detail.
• Team enhancement: The firm is successfully established in the field of strategic legal consulting thanks to its team of skilled professionals – brilliant people that offer tangible results to clients.