Neil

This is instead of a LinkedIn profile (here's why).

Hello!

I'm Neil.

I am a solicitor with almost 20 years of experience advising on the intersection of law and technology, especially communications regulation, data protection and privacy, security, and Internet and computer law.

I am pragmatic, straight-talking, and tech savvy.

I deliver clear, sensible, commercially-minded advice, and I work closely with my clients. I'll listen to your suggestions and ideas as well as your needs, and come up with solutions which make sense for your business.

My pronouns are he/him/his.

Experience and successes

Since I started decoded.legal in 2016, I have:

  • advised a range of telecoms operators on what they need to do to comply with the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 and to respond to demands from law enforcement agencies, and routinely engage with government and agencies to get the best possible position for my clients

  • advised on risk assessments and compliance measures under the Online Safety Act 2023

  • prepared terms and conditions for numerous organisations, including telecoms operators, hosting companies, software developers, Wi-Fi providers

  • provided data protection advice on initiatives to help improve diversity in the film industry

  • supported on dealing with, and responding to, ransomware attacks, including assessing statutory notification obligations

  • helped a major energy company with its GDPR compliance activity, and providing ongoing support as part of its in-house privacy team, advising on well over 500 projects

  • advised on, and led, responses to audits carried out by the Information Commissioner's Office

  • dealt with hundreds of subject rights requests under the UK data protection framework, along with other data protection related issues and complaints, and helped solve myriad customer complaints

  • saved an ISP a small fortune by reading its contracts with key suppliers and writing letters asking for money to be returned / undue charges to be written off

  • written responses to numerous regulatory consultations, to help guide legislative and policy development

  • successfully closed a formal ICO investigation into a company's communications, persuading the ICO that the approach was consistent with the law — the ICO closed the investigation without taking any action

  • helped multiple ISPs, telcos, and companies offering online services launch new products and services, and put in place clearer, simpler, and more suitable contracts with their customers, helping them to protect their position and meet their legal obligations

  • acted as "virtual general counsel" to a fintech start-up, helping it grow from tiny to getting millions of users, negotiating deals for them across the world with numerous banks and major commercial customers

  • found a way through numerous data protection, privacy, and telco regulatory issues to help a telco pilot an SMS spam / fraud detection and prevention system

  • supported a healthcare company getting into an exciting new partnership, and then helped it get out again when it turned out to be less exciting than anticipated

  • turned a regulator's own privacy programme around in the space of a couple of weeks, from "close to nothing", to something they can implement and build on

  • helped with a range of compliance issues, including ASA complaints about advertising, ADR / ombudsman complaints under Ofcom's General Conditions of Entitlement, and queries from the ICO and other regulators

  • advised multiple organisations looking at cross-industry data sharing activities for anti-fraud/spam projects

I have advised numerous Free and open source software projects on a pro bono (free of charge) basis.

Before starting decoded.legal, I was employed by Vodafone for over 10 years, working in both its UK operating company and its central group legal team.

Appointments

I am:

I have been:

  • a member of the Information Commissioner's Office's Technology Advisory Panel.

  • a member and deputy chair of the Independent Digital Ethics Panel for Policing, the only practising lawyer to be appointed. I provided ethical advice on a range of scenarios, including to the National Crime Agency on undercover activity in child sexual exploitation investigations. I retired in 2019.

  • a member of the Law Society's Technology and Law Reference Group, through which I provided guidance and advice on a wide range of issues relating to — wait for it — technology and the law.

Education

I have undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in law - LLB, PgDLP, and LLM - and I was awarded a vice-chancellor's scholarship for doctoral research in communications regulation.

I started doing a part-time PhD on the regulation of over the top communications services, and some of what I recommended in a published article appeared in the revised European Electronic Communications Code.

After three years of trying to do the PhD alongside running decoded.legal, I realised I had to pick one or the other, and chose to focus on decoded.legal.

I qualified as a solicitor in 2007.

Teaching and publications

You can follow me in the fediverse.

My personal blog has my writings about Internet and computer stuff (mostly Linux / Free software).

I have:

Useless facts

I can juggle five balls, three knives/fire sticks (blindfolded), and ride a unicycle. But not all at the same time.

I have used Linux for over 25 years, and prefer vim over emacs. I have a particular interest in Linux on mobile devices.

I love reading, and have been a fan of eBooks and eReaders since the Sony PRS-505 almost 20 years ago.

I have a strong preference for local computing and self-hosting.

I was, as far as I know, one of the first lawyers to have a Tor .onion / hidden service.

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