Santa Clara Law lecturer brings international privacy expertise to the board.
Lydia de la Torre LLM ’14, a privacy law attorney and lecturer in privacy law at Santa Clara University School of Law, has been chosen to be among the five members of California’s inaugural privacy-law implementation and enforcement agency, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA).
The agency is “charged with protecting the fundamental privacy rights of consumers over their personal information,” according to the March 17 announcement by California Governor Gavin Newsom. The board was created as part of the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA).
De la Torre has substantial experience working on complex international data-protection issues in Silicon Valley and Europe. She has been senior privacy counsel at Intuit, PayPal, and eBay, and she also practiced tax and data-protection law at the prestigious Spanish law firm Garrigues. From 2017-2019, she served as the inaugural privacy law fellow at Santa Clara Law, and her contributions helped boost the nationally ranked privacy law program at Santa Clara Law (ranked in the top 5 percent nationally by the International Association of Privacy Professionals).
As the privacy law fellow, she co-directed the Santa Clara Law Privacy Certificate Program, organized several conferences on privacy, and created a new popular annual course, Comparative Privacy Law, in which she teaches students how to compare and contrast the CCPA/CPRA and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Since her fellowship, de la Torre has served as of-counsel to Squire Patton Boggs, where she specialized in privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity. She will leave the firm to take on the new role as CPPA board member. De la Torre is expected to continue teaching Comparative Privacy Law at Santa Clara Law while serving on the CPPA.
De la Torre is licensed to practice law both in the EU (Spain) and the US (California). De la Torre earned a JD from Universidad Complutense School of Law (Madrid, Spain); an LLM in EU Taxation from Centro de Estudios Garrigues; and an LLM in IP from Santa Clara University School of Law.
“Few people in the state or country have as much expertise about the CCPA or CPRA as Lydia has,” said Santa Clara Law Professor Eric Goldman, who serves as associate dean of research, supervisor of the Privacy Law Certificate, and co-director of the High Tech Law Institute.
“Many American lawyers claim to be GDPR experts, but only a lawyer fully versed in European law—like Lydia—truly understands the GDPR,” Goldman added. “Few potential board candidates have the breadth and depth of expertise on the CCPA and CPRA as she has. She has exceptionally rare expertise that will be helpful to the CPPA as it encounters many questions that are novel to California but more familiar to GDPR experts.”
“Lydia is an internationally respected leader in her field, and the Santa Clara Law community is proud that she will serve our state in this capacity,” said Anna Han, interim dean, Santa Clara Law.
About the CPPA*
The California Privacy Protection Agency will have full administrative power, authority, and jurisdiction to implement and enforce the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). The board will appoint the agency’s executive director, officers, counsel and employees. The agency may bring enforcement actions related to the CCPA or CPRA before an administrative law judge. The Attorney General will retain civil enforcement authority over the CCPA and the CPRA, the announcement stated.
“The California Privacy Protection Agency Board is part of California’s commitment to the toughest privacy protection laws in the nation,” said Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego). “The pandemic put us online more than ever—this Board will help protect the most private information of individuals and families for the world we live in now and in the future. I am confident that our Senate Rules nominee, Lydia de la Torre, will bring the kind of expertise the Board will need to take those protections to the next level.”
*From March 17 announcement
About Santa Clara University School of Law
Santa Clara University School of Law, one of the nation’s most diverse law schools, is dedicated to educating lawyers who lead with a commitment to excellence, ethics, and social justice. Santa Clara Law offers students an academically rigorous program including certificates in high tech law, international law, public interest and social justice law, and privacy law, as well as numerous graduate and joint degree options. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara Law is nationally distinguished for its faculty engagement, preparation for practice, and top-ranked programs in intellectual property. For more information, see law.scu.edu.
Media Contact: Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Communications | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121