Charles Hosch and Kathryne Morris, founders at Hosch & Morris in Dallas.

A pair of Clark Hill Strasburger partners have left to launch a boutique firm in Texas focused on data privacy.

Charles Hosch and Kathryne Morris opened Hosch & Morris on Wednesday, with an aim to advise law firms and businesses on data security and protecting trade secrets. Russell Pearlman, former executive vice president at consulting company Headstorm in Dallas, joined as of counsel and chief technology officer.

“We focus on privacy, and technology transactions of course, but privacy. We are right at that intersection between technology and business goals,” he said.

Hosch said data privacy differs from cybersecurity. Cybersecurity relates to keeping data secure, but data privacy involves determining how companies collect data, what data they collect and how they use it, he said.

“We are helping businesses design privacy principles and requirements into their processes, into their systems, into their vendor relationships,” Hosch said.

After 35 years at Strasburger & Price (now Clark Hill Strasburger), Hosch said the time was right to form a boutique to concentrate on the data privacy practice. He said the boutique allows them to better serve clients because they can be nimble and also test drive some data privacy systems.

Dallas firm Strasburger & Price merged with Detroit firm Clark Hill in 2018—the firm is known as Clark Hill Strasburger in Texas—but Hosch said their departure was not related to any dissatisfaction with the merger.

John Hern, chief executive officer of Clark Hill, said Morris and Hosch are are “outstanding lawyers, good people” and he wishes them the best. “They wanted to pursue something that had a broader reach than legal service,” he said.

Morris and Hosch have experience in technology agreements and in trial work related to those agreements. They each have three certifications from the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Pearlman previously was chief technology officer at Merkle and Koios Works, and interim chief technology officer at Toyota Motor Sales USA.