Perkins Coie has hired Alston & Bird's privacy and data security expert Dominique Shelton in Los Angeles to help it build out a new practice group focused on advertising technology and privacy.

Shelton, who was previously a partner in Alston & Bird's technology and privacy team and chair of the firm's adtech privacy and advertising data compliance group, has focused her practice on representing companies in issues involving privacy, global data security compliance, data breaches and investigations.

“The fact that Perkins Coie has significant global experience in my area of both privacy and data security was important to me,” Shelton said.

The California native returned to Los Angeles after receiving her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1991. For more than two decades, she has defended companies in various industries, including digital advertising, entertainment, health care and telecommunications, ranging from startups to Fortune 500 outfits.

“The future of commerce is in the digital data world,” Shelton said. “Los Angeles is where a lot of that is coming together, including the region's deep history with entertainment. It's a really exciting time to be in Los Angeles right now, particularly with a data practice.”

Shelton, who in 2014 was named one of The Recorder's Women Leaders in Tech Law, will also serve as co-chair of a new group at Perkins Coie in Los Angeles that will focus on the intersection of advertising technology and privacy.

Companies spent more than $229 billion on digital advertising last year, Shelton said, which helps generate significant business for their outside law firms. While the digital advertising agencies hold a tremendous amount of personal consumer information, much of that business transpired without a legal compliance review, Shelton said. Therefore, there is a need for firms like Perkins Coie to help clients navigate through the evolving landscape of issues relating to privacy and cybersecurity, issues that are increasingly in the news.

“It is a huge market, there is a very little in the legal compliance that is taking place right now, and we want to help change that, to help protect clients going forward,” Shelton said.

Perkins Coie currently has about 26 lawyers dedicated to privacy and data security work, Shelton said. She will lead the privacy and data security practice of the firm's Los Angeles office, along with associate Jennifer Keh, who has followed Shelton from Alston & Bird, as well as few other associates already at Perkins Coie.

“Our media and technology clients here in Los Angeles will immediately benefit from Dominique's depth of experience,” said a statement from Perkins Coie's Los Angeles managing partner Audra Mori, who last month was one of several Big Law partners tapped by California Gov. Jerry Brown to fill 25 vacant trial court judgeships. “Dominique is also committed to the L.A. community, mentoring young attorneys and providing professional guidance to women attorneys and attorneys of color. It is a commitment shared by Perkins Coie in advancing diversity and inclusion in the firm and in the communities in which we serve our clients.”

Shelton, who joined Alston & Bird in 2013 from Edwards Wildman Palmer, said she was attracted to Perkins Coie's diversity initiatives. The Am Law 100 firm, which saw partner profits and gross revenue remain mostly flat in 2017, has its own chief diversity officer and has encouraged female lawyers to take advantage of opportunities to advise clients in technology and digital advertising.

“I would encourage every women lawyer who is interested in digital, privacy and technology to jump right in,” Shelton said.

Perkins Coie, which was hit last week with a discrimination suit filed by a former partner, also picked up Denver-based partner Elizabeth Kemery Sipes, a former co-leader of the private funds practice at Bryan Cave, earlier this month. Sipes and Shelton are the latest in a series of lateral partner hires by Perkins Coie in recent months.