The Council will develop, promote and provide stewardship of the highest possible standards of expertise, excellence, professional conduct and practice in the cyber security profession, for the benefit of the public and in support of the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Strategy to make the UK the safest place to live and work online.
For this critically important and high-profile project, Birketts advised on a wide range of operational matters including charity law, governance, data protection, intellectual property, commercial contracts, employment law, public procurement and trademark registrations, in one of the most impressive examples of Birketts’ seamless cross-team capabilities. The Birketts team was led by Liz Brownsell (Head of Charities), with support from Ed Bouckley (Commercial), Erika Clarke (Charities), Sara Sayer (Public Procurement), Kitty Rosser (Data Protection), Mark Gipson (Intellectual Property), Sonya O’Reilly (Employment), Carole Fenwick (Corporate), Melanie Harvey (Trademarks) and Sinead Corcoran (Charities).
Collectively, the Birketts team worked closely with volunteers from across the Cyber Security Alliance, the consortium of 16 cyber security organisations commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in August 2019 to establish the Council.
Liz Brownsell commented: “We were delighted to work on this exciting and high-profile project and to have played our part in the formation of such an important new organisation. Given our ever-increasing reliance on and use of technology and cyberspace, which has been exacerbated by the recent rapid shift to a predominantly virtual existence during the pandemic, the aims and objectives of the UK Cyber Security Council are critically important. We believe that the Council will make an essential contribution to the protection of the public by ensuring excellence in the cyber security profession and providing much needed access to training and job opportunities.”
Sandra Godman, Senior Project Manager for the UK Cyber Security Council Formation Project, concluded: “The Formation Project for the UK Cyber Security Council had many moving parts, involving dozens of volunteers, from multiple organisations, all with other ‘day jobs’. Having a single point through which we could complete all our many legal requirements and funnel our questions was essential, and Birketts’ breadth of expertise and cross-team communication made that possible. The Birketts team has helped us to create the Council, this single voice for the cyber security profession, which will bring it into line with other regulated professions such as medicine, engineering and, of course, law.”