Crowell & Moring’s Privacy & Data Protection Group Teams with Former General Electric Chief Privacy Leader

Washington, D.C. – June 20, 2006: Crowell & Moring LLP has teamed with General Electric Company ’s former chief privacy leader and senior counsel for e-Commerce & Information Technology, James M. Jordan III, to boost its growing Privacy & Data Protection Group. In this new relationship, Jordan’s law firm, Jordan Legal Counsel, P.C., will work as co-counsel with Crowell & Moring to help clients achieve and maintain compliance with privacy and personal data protection laws in the United States and globally, as they transfer more data about employees, customers and suppliers across national boundaries, and engage in employee monitoring, offshore data processing and other activities that are rapidly becoming more regulated.

The new co-counsel relationship was formed as a response to the needs of clients as they develop, implement, and administer international and domestic data protection compliance programs. Crowell & Moring’s Privacy & Data Protection Group, which consists of 16 lawyers in Washington, D.C., California, Brussels, and London, will work with Jordan to assist clients with global privacy compliance concerns as the number of countries with comprehensive data protection legislation continues to grow and as privacy issues gain further attention in the United States. Jordan’s client work has included consulting for Fortune 100 multinational corporations as well as smaller companies.

“Now that we have security breach disclosure laws in the United States, there are newspaper headlines about security breaches and identity theft nearly every day, and employees and customers are taking a much closer look at what companies are doing with their data. Many corporate data collection and processing practices that were legal and routine in the United States a few years ago are now either illegal or likely to lead to damaging negative publicity. Multinational companies that are transferring personal data out of the European Union may be violating EU laws unless they have filed the proper data protection authority notifications, even if they are just sending employee data back to headquarters. Working with Crowell & Moring allows me to be part of an international team that has helped a range of industries with such concerns,” said Jordan.

While at General Electric, Jordan helped pioneer a privacy program responsible for 320,000 employees, of which 80,000 were in Europe. His group was among the first multinational companies to pursue “binding corporate rules” (BCRs) as a strategy for complying with the laws of the EU – an approach that has great advantages over other available solutions in many cases.

“Companies who understand privacy, know that BCRs are a breakthrough solution for privacy compliance. Jim helped create and implement one of the first compliance programs of this kind and can use his experience to help our clients who are considering such an approach,” said Kris D. Meade, a partner on Crowell & Moring’s Privacy & Data Protection team. “He also brings a wealth of knowledge regarding the operational aspects of implementing an effective privacy compliance program across a large, multinational family of corporate entities,” said Meade.

Prior to his six years with GE, Jordan was a partner in the Intellectual Property Transactions Group of a major Atlanta law firm. He is a fellow of the Ponemon Institute and a member of its Responsible Information Management Council. He is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional, serves on the CIPP Advisory Board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and is the regular instructor for the Workplace Privacy module of the CIPP examination training . Jordan was recently named program director for the Conference Board Council of Chief Privacy Officers. He received both a physics degree (B.S. 1979) and a law degree (J.D. 1988) from the University of Georgia, and is a former U.S. Navy nuclear submarine officer. In addition to its work with Crowell & Moring, Jordan’s firm will continue to serve a private roster of corporate clients.

Crowell & Moring LLP is a full-service law firm with more than 300 lawyers practicing in litigation, antitrust, government contracts, corporate, intellectual property and more than 40 other practice areas. More than two-thirds of the firm's attorneys regularly litigate disputes on behalf of domestic and international corporations, start-up businesses, and individuals. Crowell & Moring's extensive client work ranges from advising on one of the world's largest telecommunications mergers to representing governments and corporations on international arbitration matters. Based in Washington, D.C., the firm also has offices in Brussels, California and London.