The firm
A practice built for Europe's data rulebook
Privello LLC is a European data regulation consultancy advising US and international companies across the EU, Switzerland, and Norway. The firm holds its work to one standard: analysis a regulator would credit, documentation an enterprise buyer would accept, and advice a client's own team can operate.
Leadership
An attorney's training, a consultant's delivery
Privello was founded by Patrick Smith, a U.S.-licensed attorney (State of Texas) and Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E), who works at the intersection Europe's privacy rules were written for: personal data that moves between jurisdictions. The practice covers the GDPR, the revised Swiss FADP, and the transfer regime that governs data flowing to the United States — with particular depth in the Swiss and Nordic frameworks alongside the EU baseline, a coverage the established European compliance houses rarely offer under one roof.
The model is deliberate. Privello engagements are consulting engagements: fixed-scope, plain-language, and built to be operated by the client's own team rather than parked in a legal file. The legal training shows up in the rigor of the analysis — the regulation, the guidance, and the enforcement practice, read in the original — not in law-firm billing. Where a matter requires legal advice or representation, Privello is candid about that line and brings in qualified counsel in the relevant jurisdiction.
The engagement standard
Senior-led, deliberately selective
Privello maintains a deliberately selective client roster, so every engagement carries principal-level attention from scoping through delivery. The advisor who maps your data flows on day one is the advisor who stands behind the transfer assessment at the end — a continuity the largest consultancies cannot offer at any price.
Deliverables are written for the people who will actually use them — your operations lead, your engineers, your sales team answering a security questionnaire — and documented so a regulator or an enterprise customer can follow the reasoning without a translator.
- Fixed-scope engagements, priced in writing before work begins
- Principal-level attention on every engagement
- Documentation your team can operate — and a regulator can follow
- Scoping discipline: a workstream you don't need is never billed
Begin
Start with a scoping conversation
Where your data originates, where it flows, and which regimes it touches. One conversation is usually enough to establish where you stand and what to address first — and every engagement that follows is scoped in writing, at a fixed fee.