Baker Hostetler offices in Washington, D.C. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

The deputy general counsel of Comcast Corp. has left his in-house role to return to private practice at Baker & Hostetler.

Daniel Pepper, most recently vice president, deputy general counsel and deputy privacy officer at Comcast, is now a partner in the law firm's privacy and data protection team.

"Clients expect to engage counsel familiar with their industry and unique operations. We are excited to add Dan's deep experience in technology and media to support our rapidly growing client roster," Theodore J. Kobus III, the firm's privacy and data protection team leader, said in the press release.

At Baker & Hostetler, Pepper is responsible for advising clients on best practices related to data security, data breaches and regulatory compliance. He is based in the Philadelphia office.

In an email, Pepper said he chose to go back to private practice because he has the best opportunity to help more clients with data privacy and security. He was a founder and managing partner of Pepper Law Group, which focused on data privacy and other related matters.

"The concerns surrounding data privacy and security continue to grow exponentially, so for me it made sense to leverage the experience I have gained to help a broader number of clients in private practice. BakerHostetler was the perfect fit to do that," Pepper said.

After graduating from the Duquesne University School of Law in 1994, Pepper worked as an associate at Goodwin Procter. He then went in-house as corporate counsel at Oracle Corp.  Pepper has also worked in-house at BEA Systems Inc. and Verizon. He joined Comcast in 2016 and was responsible for developing and implementing global policies and processes relating to privacy and data security.