Eil s McDonald

A-lishShe/herSenior Associate

...solution orientated and practical in [her] approach. [She is] incredibly adaptable to my needs as a client and builds solutions and provide advice based on my organisation’s needs.

Legal 500 2021

Emaileilis.mcdonald@akd.partners

Call+353 1 436 5450

Dublin

About

Eil s McDonald is a commercial technology lawyer, specializing in data protection, privacy and cyber security.

Eil s advises clients in the technology, industrial, financial services, life sciences and consumer goods sectors on a broad range of data protection matters including privacy governance, compliance frameworks and processes, ePrivacy and digital marketing, AI product launch and IT transformation. Eil s also advises on complex outsourcing and technology transactions mainly in the financial services sector.

Eil s is a guest lecturer on the Data Protection Module of Trinity College Dublin's LLM course, where she lectures on data subject rights, GDPR Chapter III, and privacy in practice.

Eil s was recognised as a key lawyer in Data Protection in this year s The Legal 500 (Legalease) Europe directory. She has coordinated the AKD Partners European Cookies Guide, has featured as a guest lecturer on the Law Society of Ireland s Technology Diploma.

Eil s co-leads the Dublin branch of AKD Partners's Leadership Alliance for Women network and is actively involved with campaigning and awareness raising in respect of gender equality in the legal profession.

Areas of FocusIntellectual Property Technology and Commercial Transactions Technology

Professional QualificationsAdmitted as a Solicitor with the Law Society of Scotland

EXPERIENCE

Advised a listed global packaging company in relation to an international cyber incident involving the personal data of over 48,000 employees worldwide, including regulatory and data subject notifications; employee comms strategy; media coverage; and drafting the post-breach investigation report
Advised one of Ireland's leading retail banks on their international data transfer strategy following the Schrems II Decision, which involved advising on over 35 transfer impact assessments and associated vendor contract remediations.
Advised a leading global fintech on their ongoing digital marketing strategy involving over 35 jurisdictions.
Advised a global social media company on the creation and remediation of legitimate interest assessments in respect of core processing activities which take place across their platform. This involved strategic advice around consent collection of cookies and other metadata in relation to ad-tech used on the app and interaction with advertisement measurement partners.
Advised a global beverages company on the rollout of a data loss prevention tool and the associated employee monitoring restrictions.
Advised on the migration and centralisaiton of global HR software in respect of over 46,000 employees for a multinational packaging company, which included coordinating advice across 39 jurisdictions.
Advised on the establishment of the European subsidiaries of a Chinese pharmaceutical development and manufacturing company, focusing on GDPR compliance, international data transfers, and the launch of HR software.
Advised a multinational insurance and employee benefits organisation on the creation of a bespoke data protection impact assessment template and process.
Advised an e-discovery organisation on the creation and implementation of their online global data protection agreement, involving EU, Swiss, US and UK contractual requirements.
Negotiated with a large financial technology vendor on behalf of one of Ireland's leading retail banks in respect of core payment card services.
Advised on the rollout of a global diversity and inclusion questionnaire to over 40,000 employees, leading on the coordination of data protection and employment law requirements for processing special category data across 39 jurisdictions.

Languages

RECOGNITIONS

Education

University of Glasgow, Diploma in Legal Practice, 2017

University of Aberdeen, LLB (Hons), 2016

Publications

Prior Experience

Secondment to Heineken UK Limited for 6 months, assisting mainly with their GDPR compliance program, and with the migration and IT outsourcing of key staff, customer and product data bases to the cloud.