Herbert Smith Freehills strengthens global cyber and data security team

Leading international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has hired Peter Dalton as a Partner in the firm's global cyber and data security team and IP/technology practices, based in London.

Peter re-joins Herbert Smith Freehills, having previously worked at the firm as a Senior Associate in the IP and cyber practices, before joining Stephenson Harwood as a Partner, where he co-led the technology disputes and cyber practice and operated as the lead partner for cyber advisory and incident response.

Peter’s cyber security expertise will further strengthen Herbert Smith Freehills' growing global cyber practice, which the firm has identified as a key strategic choice growth area in its Ambition 2025 strategy. Peter represents clients in complex and business critical matters including high-profile cyber incident response (including ransomware, nation-state and data breach incidents), cyber related regulatory investigations, and disputes and data related litigation. 

His return brings further significant cyber-specific expertise and deepens the bench strength of the Cyber and Data Security practice, strengthening the firm's full lifecycle service to clients, providing advisory services before a risk crystallises, crisis and legal support during a cyber incident, and follow up representation with regulators, in disputes, and in remediation activities.

Peter also has significant experience and developed practices in technology-related IP, licensing, and IT and technology disputes more generally, which will complement the firm’s holistic technology expertise and bring an additional lens to cyber mandates.

Andrew Moir, Global Head of the firm's Cyber and Data Security practice at Herbert Smith Freehills, commented: "The scale and prevalence of cyber threats continues to grow and cyber risks continue to materially impact companies around the world. The firm has decided to continue to invest in this area to respond to our clients’ increasing need for advice across cyber risk advisory as well as data governance.  Peter’s return, a lawyer whose expertise we know well, is a key part of that investment. We're delighted to have him back as part of the team."

Peter Dalton said: "It's exciting to be re-joining a law firm which I know has a strong ambition to be the market leader in cutting edge technology and cyber security legal services. I'm looking forward to taking advantage of the global platform here to the benefit of clients getting to grips with such a fast-moving landscape."

Herbert Smith Freehills' global cyber and data security team has an unrivalled breadth and depth of expertise and includes specialists from the firm's data privacy, financial services regulatory, corporate crime & investigations, insurance and employment practices, amongst others, from across the firm’s 24 offices worldwide. The team advises across the full cyber security lifecycle, including before-the-event cyber risk management, incident response and non-contentious transactional and project work.