Creating opportunities for What Comes Next: promotions 2025 spotlight

Emma Erskine-Fox

Data, Privacy and Cybersecurity Partner

What is your area of expertise?

I am a partner in TLT’s Data, Privacy and Cybersecurity team, specialising in Data and AI. My practice covers all data protection issues, including compliance frameworks and audits, privacy by design and data protection impact assessments, data processing and data sharing arrangements, data incident management, international data transfers, and adtech and cookies. I also provide strategic advice on the uncertainty, complexity and managing the risk of AI, including compliance with UK AI regulation and the EU AI Act, AI vendor management issues, governance frameworks and AI risk assessments. My clients include both public and private sector organisations, ranging from start-ups to major household names.

When did you join TLT?

I joined TLT in September 2013 as a trainee, completing seats in tech, IP and data, construction, commercial and social housing. As someone who is “TLT born and bred”, I’m immensely proud to have now joined the partnership. Since I started my training contract at TLT, the firm has nearly tripled in size, and it’s been a privilege to have been part of that growth story as the firm has consolidated its stronghold in the national arena, working on increasingly complex, strategic and high-value matters. But one of the things I love most about the firm is that, despite its rapid growth, it has stayed true to its inclusive culture, values and ethos

What do you enjoy most about working at TLT?

There is so much that I could list here. What it all boils down to is that TLT has a great balance of all the things that make a good law firm. We’re hugely ambitious but without sacrificing our core values. We strive for excellence, create opportunities for career development, have high expectations of our people, but we genuinely care about wellbeing and flexibility (as evidenced by our award-winning fully flexible approach to work, TLT World). Our senior leaders are some of the best people in the business, whilst at the same time being down-to-earth and approachable, with no sense of hierarchy. It’s an innovative and progressive firm.  TLT has never been afraid to do things differently, and that’s really paid off in the various awards we’ve won over the last few years. It’s always been an exciting firm to be a part of, and it’s a real privilege to now be able to play a part in the firm’s continued growth as a partner.

What key experiences and milestones led to your promotion to partner?

Being one of the team members at the forefront of building our AI practice over the last few years has been exciting and formative. AI is something I’ve been interested in and talking to clients about how it creates opportunities to support their growth for a long time, so it’s been brilliant to see that come to life in the form of strategic, cutting-edge projects we’ve been advising our clients on. Add to that the experience of building out a new service line over the last few years, and I think that has been a great springboard for me to develop my career. Looking back on other at career milestones, being promoted to Managing Associate three years ago whilst I was on maternity leave was a big moment and really showed me that I’d have the support I needed at TLT to meet my career aspirations whilst juggling family life.

Looking ahead what themes do you see emerging in the sector, which will require our knowledge and strategic advice?

The cross-section of data protection and AI, my two main areas of focus, is such a fascinating area and promises to keep us on our toes for many years to come! Something that has been really interesting to see emerging in the AI space recently has been the development of agentic AI, which is an incredibly sophisticated technology with huge potential, but which also poses a huge range of additional risks and issues that our clients are grappling with. I’ve advised on some complex agentic AI matters recently, demonstrating TLT’s position as a leading strategic adviser on cutting edge AI and emerging tech issues.

In the wider data protection sphere, adtech has been keeping data protection lawyers busy for a while now and that isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, particularly with an increased regulatory focus on the collection of data using advertising technologies. Adtech continues to pose challenges for our clients, and I’ve no doubt we will continue to be kept busy advising on very complex and strategic projects in this space.