Helen A. Christakos

Christakos helps technology and life sciences companies navigate the complex web of laws governing the collection, use, storage and disclosure of information. And she is an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, where she developed the curriculum for the school’s inaugural cybersecurity law class.

She moved to Fenwick & West in June 2020 from Alston & Bird LLP. “That was a great chapter for me as I look back on my career,” she said. “Now, Fenwick has a unique privacy and cybersecurity practice that includes non-attorney directors who are experienced former chief corporate security officers and other professionals who work to do the actual implementation of what we lawyers recommend, so we can offer a full-service package to clients. And we are a technology-focused firm with the infrastructure to work remotely.”

Christakos advises client Facebook Inc. on complex privacy issues related to its new products, including those involving child privacy. One example is Facebook Horizon, a social virtual reality app made for Facebook’s Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift devices. She noted that one reviewer called it “a virtual reality sandbox universe where you can build your own environments and games, play and socialize with friends or just explore the user-generated landscapes.”

As outside counsel, she also advises the company on its hands-free video chat device Portal, which has the virtual assistant Alexa built in. Raising the complexity level of the legal issues involved, users can make video calls using Messenger and WhatsApp and can interact with their Facebook accounts. Christakos advises on numerous sophisticated privacy law considerations.

“Facebook is a large part of my practice,” she said. “The questions are how to structure their products and services to comply with the regime of privacy laws and regulatory rules.”

That could get even more complex with the passage of Proposition 24, California’s further expansion of consumer privacy standards. The new law rewrites privacy rules to allow consumers to prevent businesses from sharing personal information and to correct inaccurate personal information held by companies. It also calls for the establishment of a European-style privacy commission to protect those rights.

“I have a lot of clients with questions,” Christakos said. “One big one is whether there will be a national privacy law in our future that could possibly override what California is doing. That will depend on the fallout from the election, of course, but I don’t foresee it anywhere near the top of the national agenda.”

She added that teaching her class at Santa Clara University remains a positive experience. “I love it, though I am seeing my students having a tough time with jobs lost and remote learning the rule now. They’re learning persistence and grit, and down the road that will serve them very well.”

— John Roemer