Member Article

Barnsley solicitor launches online law firm DigitalLawUK

Barnsley-based solicitor Peter Wright has launched a ‘pioneering’ digital law firm, DigitalLawUK.

This comes after a high profile case meant he had to get to grips with the law surrounding data storage and having to sift through millions of documents relating to miners’ diseases.

The firm, which he launched earlier this year with his wife Heather Anson, who is a US attorney, gives advice on digital issues from data protection and copyright to social media policies and Freedom of Information.

DigitalLawUK, which is based in the Digital Media Centre, does not give advice on any other legal matters, making it the only such specialist company in the country.

Peter, who is chair of the Law Society’s Technology and Law Reference Group, said: “It is very different from many other areas of law.

“You can train someone in buying and selling houses and not much changes in 40 years, but we have to keep up with changes all the time.

“A lot of companies know they have to be careful with data, but don’t really understand all the complexities of the law. You can have the IT department saying one thing, HR another, marketing something else and the legal team caught in the middle, and the risks are not taken seriously.

“We can come in and look at it all as a whole and work out exactly what is going on and make sure everything is legally compliant. The alternative can be fines and damage to reputation.”

DigitalLawUK, which has clients, some of them household names, across the country, and even in Canada, is being given free advice by business support programme Enterprising Barnsley, which is run by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.

The support has included digital marketing and branding, and advice on finance and HR matters.

Steve Hawkins, of Enterprising Barnsley, said: “Barnsley is proving itself to be a place where digital and creative sector businesses can start up and grow.

“The combination of the Digital Media Centre as a base and the focused, bespoke support we can offer through Enterprising Barnsley means Barnsley is the perfect home for DigitalLawUK.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .