Catherine Di Lorenzo, only female partner at Allen & Overy Luxembourg, advises clients on digital projects and investigations by grand duchy regulators across a variety of sectors. Olivier Minaire Photography 

Catherine Di Lorenzo, only female partner at Allen & Overy Luxembourg, advises clients on digital projects and investigations by grand duchy regulators across a variety of sectors. Olivier Minaire Photography 

When Catherine Di Lorenzo was recently named as one of three new Allen & Overy partners, she became the only female partner at the Luxembourg firm. She spoke with Delano about where tech and the regulatory landscape intersect and how her role can involve setting new precedents.

Di Lorenzo--who heads the IP, data and tech practice at the firm--and her colleague Thomas Berger (also a newly-named partner), made in December as they defended Amazon in an appeal against the collection of the €746m fine imposed on the American tech giant by Luxembourg’s data protection watchdog, the CNPD. The suspension of the payment of the fine was based on the argument that were required from the CNPD.

Attorney-client privilege, of course, means that Di Lorenzo couldn’t talk more about the case--but she did tell Delano that representing them is “exciting”.

“But even if you’re not Amazon, you need one complaint from an employee or a client and off goes an investigation into certain of your practices, or a spontaneous investigation from the authority,” she warns.

Cookies, AI and cybersecurity

The “next big thing” companies should now be focused on, she adds, is the so-called “cookie law”. The CNPD recently issued on cookies and similar tracer technology.

“Every company that has a website and collects data, which all websites do to some extent, and then if you do advertising based on information you collect, you should definitely get interested in complying with that,” Di Lorenzo warns.

Of course, cybersecurity should generally be at the forefront of a company’s agenda as well. Di Lorenzo says issues surrounding phishing and similar practices rose during the pandemic, and she recommends companies not only keep a close eye on such issues but also “refresh regularly”, as protecting data also translates to protecting clients and employees.

There’s also the EU artificial intelligence regulation in the pipeline--another development which should be on companies’ radars, she argues, “especially if they use these kind of tools for recruitment and HR.” Industry federation Fedil in February issued a on the regulation, urging European regulators to ensure that rules are clear, objective and realistic. The lobbying body asked for obligations “proportionate to the risks incurred” and asked that rules “not constitute a regulatory straightjacket that hinders innovation and investment”.

Setting precedents

One of the most interesting aspects about Di Lorenzo’s work is the fact that technology moves at such a speed that often the regulations can’t keep pace with it. Di Lorenzo enjoys the constantly changing world in which she operates, saying at times she has a question in her inbox from a client interested in developing a new technology, asking what the compliances are--and there may not necessarily be a precedent.

“I'm not an engineer, no tech studies or something like that. But you need to understand the product and to understand, to be able to give meaningful advice… to understand how it works in practice,” Di Lorenzo says. “Otherwise, you can't draft a software agreement if you do not understand exactly what it's doing and what the specifications and the key performance indicators are that you need to put in that document.”

She adds: “So you just need to provide advice based on your experience and you need to know guidance very well, the regulatory landscape very well. And then you are able to, in the best case, provide the right advice so that the business works without risks for the client.”

Mentoring others

Di Lorenzo says, generally speaking, both legal and tech fields tend to be more “male align[ed]”, but she says “the firm genuinely wants to have more female partners… and we have great talent pipeline”.

At the time Allen & Overy made the announcement about the new partners, it also noted that “over half of the new promoted lawyers are women”, even if only one of the three partners were women. However, the firm appears to be advancing in its targets. Just prior to the firm being with the ministry of equality’s “Actions positives” label for its one-of-a-kind parental leave, who said they aimed for 30% females for new partner promotions.  

In light of her own promotion, Di Lorenzo adds, “I realised people are very supportive in helping you in your career, and I had great mentors throughout.” She says she has been mentoring some young women associates at the firm, with one mentee in Germany and another in the UK, “to help others do the same journey.”

Allen & Overy, one of only six firms to act on deals worth over $1.3trn last year, has over 40 locations worldwide.