Yann Padova is a partner in the Brussels office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he is a member of the firm’s privacy and cybersecurity practice. He has extensive experience dealing with regulatory issues and with issues related to internet law, data protection, internet surveillance, cloud computing, international data transfers and cybercrime. He has also assisted numerous businesses with complex projects involving new technologies (ethics of algorithm, data and AI governance, biometrics, profiling, e-discovery procedures, etc.).

Yann advises on enforcement and sanction proceeding by regulators. He also works with large companies on problems linked to cybercrime, internal investigation and security breach notification matters.

Prior to joining Wilson Sonsini in 2023, Yann was a partner in the information technology group and head of the data protection practice at Baker McKenzie in France. Before joining Baker McKenzie, Yann served as Commissioner with the Commission de Régulation de l’Energie (CRE - 2015-2017), to which he was appointed by the President of the National Assembly due to his skills in the field of personal data. Before this appointment, he worked for Baker McKenzie in Paris as Senior Counsel in the information technology team (2012-2015).

For six years, he was Secretary General of the CNIL (2006-2012), the French data protection authority, where he built the enforcement and technological capacities of the authority and participated in the very first rounds of negotiations of the GDPR.

He began his career as an Administrator at the National Assembly (1995-2006) where he specialized in personal data laws, criminal law, and criminal investigations and, perhaps most notably, participated in the legal work that led to the transposition of the Directive 95/46 on data protection into French Law.

Yann is also a lecturer in Data Protection and Digital Regulations at Paris II Law University and at Sciences Po Paris.