Expertise
Deirdre Crowley is a Partner in Matheson’s Commercial Disputes and Investigations Group and our cross-departmental Digital Economy Group.
Deirdre is recognised as a “go to” person for digital economy related, data protection, cyber and artificial intelligence advices.
Deirdre is particularly well known for her blended contentious privacy and employment practice, having specialised as a leading Irish employment lawyer for 16 years before specialising in privacy law in 2019.
Deirdre leads a number of ongoing, high profile cases where Matheson successfully obtained court protection for clients in cases involving ransomware attacks and the theft of sensitive commercial data by external bad actors and insiders, including employees.
A lead advisor in many of Matheson’s contentious Regulatory Investigations, Deirdre has a significant cyber law and data breach practice.
This year, Deirdre is advising multinational pharma and tech clients in relation to global data breaches. Deirdre provides a full range of cyber advices from governance to table top exercises, incident management, regulatory investigations, privacy related litigation and contentious data subject access requests.
Deirdre’s practice includes work relating to recently enacted legislation relevant to new multi-regulatory supervision and enforcement powers. Deirdre often advises clients in relation to similar obligations and legal issues arising across multiple regulators, including the Data Protection Commission, Coimisiún na Meán (The Irish Media Commission), the National Cyber Security Centre, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Central Bank.
Recent areas of experience highlights include:
- Advising a professional regulatory body, several technology, medical device and pharma companies on refreshed governance programmes to incorporate new obligations in the cyber security (and related GDPR) and AI context.
- Together with a large multi disciplinary team, advising a US tech company in relation to the theft of trade secrets, intellectual property, confidential data and related corporate espionage issues in complex High Court proceedings.
- Advising a leading Irish health and safety company in relation to High Court litigation involving the theft of commercial data and its use by a competitor.
- Advising several of Matheson’s key clients in relation to data breach matters including incident management, briefing and co-ordinating forensic experts, law enforcement, and managing contract notification obligations to customers and vendors. Drafting and advising on breach related reporting obligations to the Data Protection Commission, the Competition and Consumer Regulatory Authority and Coimisiún na Meán on behalf of clients.
- Advising clients in relation to contentious data subject access requests (DSAR) in employment, regulatory investigations and consumer cases. Also advising on related DSAR complaints and investigations before the Data Protection Commission.
- Recently advised global social media platform on the implications of monitoring content in compliance with the Digital Services Act. Deirdre co-ordinated a multi-regulatory response to a significant incident relating to content on behalf of this client to Coimisiún na Meán (the Irish Media Commission), the Data Protection Commission, the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau, the London Metropolitan Police and INTERPOL.
- Advising a large technology company in relation to compliance with obligations set out in the Digital Markets Act.
- Admitted as a solicitor in Ireland, 2003
- Diploma in Employment Law, University College Dublin, 2004
- CIPPE, Privacy and Data Protection, International Association of Privacy Practitioners, 2018