Dominique Shelton Leipzig

Shelton Leipzig, who co-chairs Perkins Coie’s ad tech privacy and data management group, was well-placed to lead the representation of the California Chamber of Commerce in a six-week negotiation with the drafters of the California Consumer Privacy Act and its 2020 update, the California Privacy Right Act.

The situation was clearly urgent, amped up by the ways the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the public’s reliance on technology in virtual work and schooling. Shelton Leipzig met with the bills’ author Alastair Mactaggart and their sponsor, state Senate Majority Leader Robert M. Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) and their staff advisors.

Many of the business-friendly provisions of the law emerged from those negotiations, Shelton Leipzig said. “We took a red pen and worked to improve the existing statute. While there was no going back, we worked with the existing realities. My point was to make it practical and workable.”

Among the clarifications she obtained were provisions making clear that opt-in and permission based loyalty programs that collect data were permissible, for example, and time was extended for businesses to comply with some aspects of the law. “My style is not to be combative, but to try for solutions,” she said.

Shelton Leipzig and colleagues also wrestled with how the law deals with consumers’ “sensitive personal information” that reveals racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical ideologies and sexual orientation. As she and others wrote in one analysis, “This is an important issue because data privacy laws should encourage rather than hinder the advancement of social justice causes” and “businesses are understandably concerned about collecting such identity or ideology-based data about users’ interests.”

To translate the law to its practical applications, Shelton Leipzig leads the privacy representation of Microsoft Commercial Business as it pertains to its AdTech Privacy issues, providing ongoing counseling advice. She provides similar guidance in the health sector regarding HIPPA compliance.

She also co-hosts a podcast, “Decrypted Unscripted,” that surveys the privacy landscape. “We talk to a broad spectrum of folks to unpack what’s going on with data,” Shelton Leipzig said.

— John Roemer