March 11, 2014, Washington, D.C. – Reed Smith LLP today announced the addition of Divonne Smoyer as a partner in its Washington, D.C. office, where she will be a member of the firmwide Global Regulatory Enforcement Group. She was formerly a partner in the State Attorneys General Practice at Dickstein Shapiro LLP in the nation’s capital.
“Divonne has a prominent State Attorneys General practice, with a focus on privacy and data protection, as well as other consumer protection and business regulation issues,” said Debra H. Dermody, Co-Chair of Reed Smith’s Global Regulatory Enforcement Group. “She brings practice skills that cover data security and privacy counseling, as well as state government relations and consumer protection, which are in great demand in this economy. The addition of top attorneys like Divonne significantly augments Reed Smith’s data privacy capabilities at a time when our clients need them the most.”
As part of her consumer protection state AG practice, Divonne maintains relationships with AGs, working with them in anticipation of and then crafting creative solutions to potential issues being raised or pursued by AGs before they impact clients. She also helps clients minimize exposure to litigation initiated by state AGs and defends AG actions and investigations when they are unavoidable.
A Certified Information Privacy Professional, Smoyer advises clients on a wide range of regulatory issues, including cybersecurity and data privacy. In addition to her data privacy work, she represents Fortune 100 corporations on complex, high-stakes litigation and government investigations.
“State AG offices are focused more than ever on how companies handle and use customers’ information. With Reed Smith’s strength in data privacy, we offer clients a deep understanding of the complex legal issues at the intersection of consumer protection, business regulation, and digital information, said Smoyer. “In addition to my privacy work, I provide major corporations many years of experience handling high stakes government investigations and litigations. ”
A 1995 graduate of Harvard Law School, Smoyer has taught courses on negotiation strategy and alternative dispute resolution at The George Washington University Law School and Georgetown University Law Center.
“Divonne is a tremendous addition to the D.C office,” said A. Scott Bolden, Reed Smith’s Washington, D.C., Managing Partner. “Her experience with state attorneys general is a strong complement to much of our state and federal governmental regulatory work.”
Smoyer is the second new partner to join the firm’s Global Regulatory Enforcement Group in as many weeks: FCRA and privacy litigator Michael O’Neil transitioned to the Group from DLA Piper on March 3rd. O’Neil is resident in the firm’s Chicago office.
Our data security and privacy litigation team has successfully defended more than 75 putative class actions including MDL proceedings as lead defense counsel, arising from data breach or theft, as well as allegations of data misuse. The practice – based throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia – also deals with privacy regulators. The group works with clients across diverse industry sectors, including financial services, life sciences, education, retail, advertising, technology and media. Our team works closely with the other lawyers in our Global Regulatory Enforcement Group to maximize, for the benefit of our clients, our collective contacts and experience with, for example, the Federal Trade Commission, Attorneys General, U.S. banking regulators, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data.
Reed Smith’s Global Regulatory Enforcement Group comprises some 210 attorneys in 25 offices on three continents, handling all aspects of regulatory compliance and enforcement issues, including antitrust and competition; data security, privacy and management; export, customs and trade; government contracts and grants; government investigations and white-collar criminal defense; securities litigation and enforcement; and public policy and infrastructure.
