Fox Rothschild

Fox Rothschild has repeatedly said its ambitious expansion efforts are focused on the U.S., but its latest data privacy hire has an eye on international deals and Europe's new General Data Protection Regulation.

The firm said Monday that it has hired Philadelphia lawyer Odia Kagan to head up a GDPR compliance and international privacy group. Kagan, who joins from Ballard Spahr, is an M&A lawyer who now spends all of her time working with companies to structure their products, services and transactions so they are compliant with privacy and data security regulations and best practices, both in the U.S. and abroad, she said.

Fox Rothschild's firmwide managing partner Mark Morris said her practice group is a new one, though it is a “subset” of the data privacy group, with existing data privacy lawyers already having done some work on GDPR compliance. He said he would like to hire more lawyers with international privacy expertise.

“It's a really hot time for this, and it's a great time to really put the pedal to the metal and boost my practice,” Kagan said, with GDPR going into effect and the passage of the California Consumer Privacy Act. “The privacy group is known in the firm and people know they can turn to it. That is very fertile ground on which to grow my practice.”

She likened her own practice to that of tax, IP or employee benefits lawyers who are routinely called in to lend their expertise in a transaction. Privacy and data security has become an increasingly important factor in those deals, she said.

Kagan is co-chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association's cyberlaw committee, and she teaches at the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law as an adjunct professor in cybersecurity and privacy regulation. She was of counsel at Ballard Spahr for about three years and before that, she practiced at Pepper Hamilton as an associate from 2008 to 2015. She started her legal career in Israel at Tel Aviv law firm Shavit Bar-On Gal-On Tzin Witkon.

Having just started at Fox Rothschild on Monday, she said she hopes to continue her client relationships, but she declined to name any clients.

“She's got her own practice but also she can really help service our existing clients,” Morris said. “That's an area where we've had a lot of demand across the country.”

However, Morris noted, the addition of an international privacy practice doesn't signal plans to open new offices outside the U.S. Kagan said that's somewhat of an advantage, because she has an existing network of international lawyers she will be able to continue working with as needed, instead of being forced to refer international work to her own firm.

“It's something that a lot of American companies now have to contend with because they do business overseas,” Morris said. “We're trying to create an identity in certain niche practices and this certainly helps do that.”

Ballard Spahr did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Kagan's departure.

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