Matthew Nuding is an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and former secondee at the ICO.
I am an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and undertook my secondment at the ICO between March and October 2024. It was a very fulfilling experience working on regulatory and enforcement matters. Every week I learnt more and more from my colleagues at the ICO who were doing mammoth work grappling with emerging legal issues and doing so at pace!
I worked on a wide variety of matters, ranging from large scale investigations to legal policy issues. It will come as no surprise that I spent a significant portion of my secondment on legal policy issues surrounding AI. For example, I assisted with the ICO’s consultation series on generative AI and data protection. It is extremely important that regulators like the ICO carefully consider their approach to this new technology, and it has been fantastic to see the thorough work being done to apply data protection law to the development and use of generative AI models.
My experience on secondment has proved invaluable to me since my return to private practice at my firm. For instance, I now have a much more extensive understanding of data protection law and the various forces at play in the regulatory universe. I have also seen first-hand the interplay of data protection with areas like online safety, biometrics and children’s privacy. The ICO legal team's practice of facilitating presentations from legal colleagues on nascent areas of law (eg deep dives on biometrics) is also immensely useful, and I had the opportunity to deliver some of these.
There is a wide breadth of data protection knowledge in the ICO’s legal team. It has been wonderful to work alongside truly impressive colleagues who have offered me fresh perspectives on data protection law. I particularly enjoyed in-depth conversations about often overlooked areas of the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and these exchanges have enrichened my understanding of the statutory landscape for data protection.
I am in no doubt that my time at the ICO will have a long-lasting impact on my legal career. I would highly recommend the secondment to any lawyers with an interest in data protection.