Kieran de Terra

Kieran de Terra is an Associate in the Intellectual Property and Technology practice group (Data Protection, Privacy, and Security sub-group) in the firm's Downtown San Diego office.

Originally from Ireland, Kieran has been working as a privacy and cybersecurity attorney in San Diego since 2015. As this practice area has grown into prominence for all businesses over the previous years, Kieran has been at the forefront in assisting both start-ups and Fortune 100 companies with their global privacy compliance needs, both from a legal and consulting approach.

Kieran holds three certifications from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) – Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM), and both Certified Information Privacy Professional EU and US (CIPP/E & CIPP/US). He is also a Fellow of Information Privacy with the IAPP.

Kieran has advised clients on privacy law in numerous industry sectors including news and media publishing, financial services, ad-tech, blockchain, cannabis, retail, multifamily housing PaaS and SaaS providers, wearable health and medical devices, social media, and IoT. He has worked with many of these clients to drive and manage initial Gap Analyses to identify areas of opportunity to improve compliance efforts within the entity's privacy program. These Gap Analyses typically cover CCPA, CPRA, GDPR, HIPAA, GLBA, and LGPD, as well as leading privacy frameworks such as NIST Privacy Framework, GAPP, and ISO standards.

Kieran's practice also involves privacy remediation efforts, including advising clients on implementing overarching data governance programs, utilizing PETs such as the OneTrust platform (for which Kieran holds multiple module-specific certifications) and other privacy enhancing technologies to control the data lifecycle, implementing internal measures and training to handle and respond to privacy rights requests, selecting appropriate cross-border transfer mechanisms, conducting privacy impact assessments and data protection impact assessments, and drafting and implementing data inventories and records of processing activities.

Kieran has also assisted clients with FTC consent order independent assessments and compliance, including privacy governance audits.

Additionally, Kieran has experience providing broad corporate governance, contract drafting and negotiation, and IP support to small and mid-size entities, including non-profit formation and rehabilitation, and trademark prosecution and licensing.

Kieran brings an international viewpoint to his practice, having grown up and attended undergraduate in Ireland and New Zealand, law school in the US and Singapore, and having worked in London and Sydney.