Ann Bevitt

Ann’s two key and complementary practice areas, employment and privacy, focus on helping companies manage two of their most important business assets – their employees and their data.

Ann’s employment practice covers all aspects, both contentious and noncontentious, of employment law and employment-related matters. On the noncontentious side, she focuses on counselling clients throughout the employment life cycle, from the cradle (hiring) to the grave (firing). Ann also advises clients on employment issues arising out of international reorganisations, outsourcings, insolvencies, and mergers and acquisitions. Her contentious work includes the protection of confidential information and trade secrets before, during and after employment, the enforcement of restrictive covenants against former employees, and the handling of other employment-related claims arising during and on termination of employment. 

In her privacy practice, Ann assists clients with privacy and data security compliance and risk management, and she advises on issues such as effecting data transfers, drafting privacy policies, conducting electronic marketing, monitoring employees (with a particular focus on monitoring to protect the employer’s trade secrets and other confidential information), dealing with eDiscovery, undertaking internal investigations (domestic and cross-border), responding to data subject requests, and notifying breaches.

Ann works with clients, including multinationals, large corporations, governments and individual senior executives, from industry sectors such as technology, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, banking and financial services, venture capital and private equity, insurance, hotel and leisure, music, and recruitment and employment.

Ann has rights of audience in all civil courts and significant experience as an advocate. She was called to the bar in 1992 and practiced as a barrister with a focus on employment law for seven years before qualifying as a solicitor in 2000.

Ann has appeared on the BBC’s ‘World Business Report’ discussing data transfers. She also regularly writes for legal and human resources publications, including the Financial Times, City A.M., Management Today and Personnel Today. She is co-author of ‘A Guide to Hiring and Firing in Europe’ and a contributing author to ‘Employee Privacy: Guide to US and International Law, Trade Secrets, and Sale and Supply of Goods and Services’ and ‘A Practical Guide to UK and EU Data Protection Law’.

Ann leads Cooley’s UK employment practice, which has been ranked in The Legal 500 UK. Ann also has been personally ranked for her employment and data protection work in Chambers UK and for her privacy work in The Legal 500 UK, and she is described as ‘very knowledgeable’ and ‘demonstrating noteworthy strengths in the life sciences and tech sectors’. Ann also has been ranked as a thought leader in Who’s Who Legal.

Select recent publications

• Author, ‘Living in a Non-Material World – The Impact of Farley v Paymaster on GDPR Damages Claims’, PDP Journals, October/November 2025
• Author, ‘GDPR Damages: New Tests for Claims’, PLC Magazine, October 2025
• Author, ‘Data Protection in M&A: Considerations for Buyers and Sellers’, PLC Magazine, March 2025
• Author, ‘GDPR, AI and HR: A Guide to Compliance for HR Professionals’, PDP Journals, January/February 2025
• Author, ‘The New Guidance on Workplace Monitoring’, PDP Journals, January/February 2024

Recent speaking engagements

• Speaker, ‘Handling Employment Investigations: Key Data Protection Issues’, MBL Seminars, 4 December 2025
• Speaker, ‘Handling Complaints Relating to Subject Access Requests’, MBL Seminars, 5 November 2025
• Panelist, ‘UK Legal Update: Navigating Change – Employment Rights Bill and Share Option Trends’, Cooley HR Network, 25 September 2025
• Speaker, ‘Employee Surveillance and the GDPR: Navigating Privacy, Compliance and Risk’, MBL Seminars, 14 August 2025
• Panelist, ‘The Data (Use and Access) Act: What Businesses Need to Know’, Cooley, 10 July 2025
• Panelist, ‘Non-Material Damage Claims Following Data Protection Violations’, Privacy Laws & Business, 8 July 2025
• Speaker, ‘GDPR & ESG: What You Need to Know’, MBL Seminars, 21 May 2025
• Speaker, ‘UK/EU Data Protection Compliance in Clinical Trials: A Guide for Life Sciences, Biotech, and Pharma Industries’, MBL Seminars, 21 May 2025
• Speaker, ‘UK Privacy Law and the UK GDPR’, Albany Law School, New York, 5 February 2025
• Panelist, ‘AI + Employment’, Cooley AI Talks, 29 January 2025
• Speaker, ‘Women in Work: Rights, Responsibilities and What’s in Store in ’24 (and Beyond)’, BioIndustry Association Women in Biotech, 12 March 2024