Legal Elite 2023: Cybersecurity/Data Privacy/Technology Q&A

Title: Managing partner and chair of Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Practice Group

Other legal specialties: Government and public sector

Education: Bachelor’s degree, Norfolk State University; law degree, University of Wisconsin Law School; certified information privacy professional, International Association of Privacy Professionals

Family: Wife, Maria Lawson-Davenport, and sons Darius Davenport Jr., David Davenport and Daniel Davenport

Career mentors: Chief Justice Leroy Hassell, Justice Bernard Goodwyn, Judge Raymond Jackson, Judge Jerrauld Jones, Judge Helivi Holland, Sharron Goodwyn, Jeff Brauch, Jim Murphy, James Chapman, George Martin, Antoinette Wright-McRae, Melinda Comfort, Jim Woods, Cassandra Newby-Alexander, Robert Davenport

Most recent book read: “Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future,” by John Lewis

Hobbies: Fishing, DJing

What recommendations do you make to clients for mitigating their cyber risks? Take reasonable action when it comes to securing sensitive information. Reasonable action does not require one to turn their organization into Fort Knox, but it does require you to do more than nothing to protect company, employee and client data. Reasonable action equals two major components: implementing sound employee policies that provide the left and right boundaries for what employees should be doing, and properly resourcing information technology/security personnel to deploy reasonable security measures throughout your IT environment.   

What’s important to keep in mind regarding data privacy in 2024? I think it is important to look/hope for a comprehensive data breach notification law and a data privacy protection law. We currently have a national patchwork of states promulgating their own breach notification, privacy and biometric laws. However, we need a federal standard to alleviate the complications and confusion that businesses have to deal with when recovering from a multistate data breach and find themselves subject to the requirements and timelines of multiple jurisdictions. Based on the common themes to all breach, privacy and biometric laws, it should be a light lift for Congress to agree to a federal standard.

Check out the rest of the 2023 Legal Elite.