Alan L. Friel is chair of the firm’s Data Privacy, Cybersecurity & Digital Assets Practice. BTI Consulting Group has named Alan a Client Service All-Star, recognizing lawyers who stand above all others in delivering the absolute best in client service. He is tier-1 ranked by Chambers and has been recognized by leading industry groups and publications.
Alan is a thought leader in digital media, intellectual property, data privacy and protection, and consumer protection law, with over three decades of relevant experience to address the intersection of law and technology.
Having served as a general counsel for several years in the late 1990s before returning to private practice, Alan has the necessary expertise to advise clients on making practical and informed business decisions, and help companies and entrepreneurs navigate the complex opportunities created by disruptive technology. With his in-house and private practice experience, he assists clients with creating data inventories, and information governance and data privacy and security programs; developing and implementing policies and procedures for providing consumer data privacy transparency, choice and access; drafting and negotiating privacy and data security provisions for commercial contracts; evaluating privacy impact assessments; addressing data privacy and security issues in merger and acquisitions transactions; structuring personal data transfer arrangements (including cross-border, intracompany, sales and licenses, and disclosures that are exempt from, and/or comply with, certain legal restrictions); drafting and revising external and internal privacy and data security policies and procedures; and addressing complex intellectual property and consumer protection issues related to digital media, advertising and commerce, such as in connection with the development and deployment of artificial intelligence, tailored and targeted advertising practices, and digital transformation and data commercialization strategies.
Alan has been helping shape law and public policy regarding digital media since he was the Sherwood Shafer Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union from 1992-1994, addressing the potential benefits and risks of the then emerging Internet, and has made the evolution of data technologies, and corresponding regulation, the focus of his legal practice. Alan remains at the forefront of emerging media and tech, advising publishers and other online services, advertisers, ad tech companies, marketing services providers, data brokers, e-commerce merchants, software and SaaS/PaaS providers, and other data controllers and processors of all sorts, on related legal issues. He also works closely with his clients’ trade organizations, such as the Internet Advertising Bureau and the Association of National Advertisers, and privacy professional organizations such as the IAPP and Bay Area Digital Marketing and Privacy Workgroup.
Alan is a sought-after speaker. He is affiliated with UCLA as an assistant professor in a multidisciplinary project at the Graduate School of TV, Film and Digital Media, and is an adjunct professor at Loyola Marymount School of Law. He and others in our Data Privacy, Cybersecurity & Digital Assets Practice supervise and manage law students from U.C. San Francisco (formerly Hastings) in a clinical program that provides pro bono legal services to non-profits and start-ups.
Prior to joining the firm, Alan served in several leadership capacities at other AmLaw 100 firms. This included chairing a global technology, media and telecommunications practice and as the coordinator of a consumer privacy practice.
Privacy and Data Protection
Advertising, Marketing and Digital Media
Sports and Entertainment
Other
2026 Data Privacy Law Expert of the Year in California, Leaders in Law
Chambers USA, Nationwide Privacy & Data Security: Adtech, Band 1, 2023-2025
Thomson Reuters, Stand-out Lawyer, 2023-2025
Los Angeles Times, 2023 Legal Visionary
Los Angeles Business Journal, Top 100 Lawyers of Los Angeles for 2023
National Law Journal, Trailblazer for Media and Advertising Law in 2023
Best Lawyers in America, Advertising Law, Media Law, and Privacy & Data Security Law 2023.
Legal Visionaries, 2022, The Los Angeles Times.
Privacy Lawyer of the Year (US), Finance Monthly.
BTI Consulting Group, Client Service All-Star.
“Alan Friel is especially knowledgeable about privacy and technology issues involved in advertising. ‘He is extremely knowledgeable and provides concise and to-the-point advice. He is quite practical and thorough.’ and ‘extremely personable, and responsive’” – Chambers USA 2021.
“Alan is especially knowledgeable about privacy and technology issues involved in advertising. He is a ‘strong player in this space’ and ‘a very good negotiator.’” – Chambers USA 2020.
Chambers USA, Nationwide Advertising: Transactional & Regulatory, 2019 to present.
Legal 500 US, Media, Technology and Telecoms – Advertising and Marketing: Transactional & Regulatory, 2018 to 2020.
Best Lawyers in America, California: Advertising Law, 2020 to present, and Media Law and Privacy and Data Security Law, 2023.
Los Angeles Business Journal’s Most Influential Lawyers: Digital Media and E-Commerce Law.
Martindale-Hubbell: AV Preeminent.
American Lawyer Media: Top Rated Lawyers in Technology.
Adjunct Professor at Loyola Law School.
Member, Cybersecurity Advisory Board of California State University – Chico.