California’s 2026 CCPA Mandate and Beyond: HR Data, AI, and Employer Compliance Risks

Alan L. Friel | Squire Patton Boggs

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.

Michael W. Kelly | Squire Patton Boggs

Michael Kelly has experience in employment litigation, counseling, collective bargaining and arbitration. His practice includes state and federal employment litigation regarding wage and hour issues, age and disability discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation.

In addition to experience with issues arising under the National Labor Relations Act, Michael has extensive litigation experience with various issues arising under the Railway Labor Act and the WARN Act.

Michael’s recent experience includes representing a national distribution and business service company in multiple class actions. Michael captained a team of lawyers in a family of approximately 70 federal district court actions involving wage and hour issues and the enforcement of arbitration agreements. Michael has advised shopping centers, hotels and schools regarding public access issues involving the First Amendment. He represented the Ohio Turnpike Commission in federal litigation regarding the demand by union members to engage in picketing on restricted Turnpike access areas.

Michael recently advised a multinational corporation in the reorganization of its executive management team and assisted clients regarding various privacy concerns. Michael has spoken with client groups and at seminars on new issues regarding employee privacy and employer monitoring of information technology facilities such as email and voicemail. He has participated in the US Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force.

Michael has served on the board of the United Way of the Bay Area Annual Campaign, and as vice chair of the board of directors and chair of the 75th Anniversary Campaign for Catholic Charities of the East Bay, the social welfare arm of the Catholic Diocese of Oakland. He provides pro bono assistance to other nonprofit institutions in the Bay Area including the Asian Art Museum Foundation.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Squire Patton Boggs Foundation, which promotes the role of public service and pro bono work in the practice of law and the development of public policy. Michael is also a member of the Board and Chair of the Governance Committee of Give2Asia, a US-based nonprofit driving social impact in local communities by connecting corporations, foundations and individuals to projects across Asia.

Michael previously served as the managing partner for Squire Patton Boggs’ NorCal offices.

I. New privacy risk assessments, cybersecurity and data subject notice and choice obligations for employers under the CCPA | 1:00pm – 1:15pm

II. Other risk and bias assessment obligations applicable to AI and Automated Decision-Making (ADM) for US employers | 1:15pm – 1:30pm

III. Other AI and ADM compliance obligations for U.S. employers | 1:30pm – 1:45pm

IV. Best practices for HR high risk data processing | 1:45pm – 2:00pm

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

V. Trade secret and antitrust issues with platform use | 2:10pm – 2:25pm

VI. Special consideration for biometrics and other sensitive personal data | 2:25pm – 2:40pm