Aaron Charfoos

Aaron D. Charfoos is an accomplished privacy and data protection trial lawyer focusing on incident response, privacy litigation, and European data privacy compliance (General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR] and cross-border data transfers).

Aaron litigated his first privacy case in 2010, building on a decade of experience in patent and technology cases. He is particularly focused on helping clients address the new U.S. and global privacy landscape by implementing global data governance systems, breach response structures, and data usage systems to ensure compliance.

He works with clients in a range of industries, including computer science, telecommunications, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, financial services, genetics, biotechnology, medical devices, and technology outsourcing.

Aaron secured many victories for clients during his years as an intellectual property litigator. Prior to joining Jones Day he obtained two major trial victories for clients in 2012, including one of the top defense verdicts in California that year. He also has won numerous appeals before the Federal Circuit, Ninth Circuit, and Indiana Court of Appeals.

Aaron is also an adjunct professor at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. He lectures on international data privacy, global data breach response, and data governance.

He is also a certified information privacy professional for the U.S. Sector (CIPP/US) and serves as co-chair of the Chicago KnowledgeNet Chapter. Aaron retains a strong commitment to pro bono activities representing small intellectual property owners and local animal welfare organizations and serves on the board of directors for Temple Sholom of Chicago.

EDUCATION:

• Northwestern University (J.D. cum laude 2002; B.A. with honors 1997)

BAR ADMISSIONS:

• Illinois, U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Federal Circuits,
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and
• U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois Trial Bar

EXPERIENCE:

• Conagra Brands acquires Pinnacle Foods for $10.9 billion in cash and stock
• Global pharmaceutical company implements global data governance structure
• Access solutions and products company responds to EU GDPR data breach following failure of servers at data center impacting EU residents
• eCommerce and digital marketing company responds to unauthorized disclosure of personal data in public marketing campaign
• Represented a global manufacturer on a data breach and trade secret theft by corporate insiders in China including leading the forensic analysis, isolating any additional malicious code left behind, and leading the litigation strategy.
• Counseled one of the world’s largest e-commerce and payments processing companies in all aspects of its GDPR compliance and cross-border data transfer systems.
• Advised an OEM auto parts company in response to a data breach relating to the theft of W-2 information for employees across seven states.
• Advised one of the largest construction equipment rental companies on the development of its privacy and data security programs for its Canadian and European affiliates and protecting data transfers from that region.
• Worked with a large, multinational automobile parts supplier on the development of its privacy policies and data breach response plan.