Ahmed Mokdad

Privacy, Data Protection, and Cybersecurity

• Seconded for a year to a leading global technology company, serving as Associate General Counsel, Data Protection for the Middle East, Africa, Turkey, and Russia, which involved oversight of data protection implementation across a geographically expansive and legally diverse region navigating varying degrees of regulatory maturity, enforcement intensity, and cultural context.
• Led regulatory engagement strategy for a major digital platform in pre-enforcement proceedings initiated by the South African Information Regulator, advising on POPIA compliance architecture and stakeholder management.
• Supported privacy strategy for cross-border infrastructure deployments, including subsea cable projects spanning South Africa, Djibouti, Oman, Kenya, Pakistan, and India, with jurisdiction-specific data flow mapping and risk mitigation planning.
• Advised on the data protection risks of clinical trial operations in South Africa, including development of POPIA-compliant consent structures and processing arrangements under applicable national health laws.
• Provided strategic privacy counsel across South Africa, the UAE, KSA, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco, and Jordan, with workstreams covering impact assessments, localization evaluations, DPO appointment criteria, and policy implementation.
• Guided response planning and regulator notification strategy following data breaches and cyber incidents in the Gulf region, including regulatory interface and communications review.
• Advised on POPIA breach notification obligations following a ransomware attack on a third-party vendor in the consumer goods sector. Drafted regulator-facing submissions and security compromise notices under POPIA, including strategic input on stakeholder communications and risk containment.
• Provided cross-border guidance on regulatory reporting and escalation procedures in the context of cyber incidents affecting anti-corruption compliance data processed outside South Africa but linked to historic diligence screening of South African data subjects.
• Advised clients on navigating cloud infrastructure regulation, data residency laws, and localization mandates in the UAE and KSA, with a focus on balancing compliance with operational flexibility.

Governance, Policy, ESG, and Strategic Advisory

• Provided legal and governance advice in connection with ESG-linked payments to traditional authorities, including fiduciary training frameworks, conflict of interest management, and reputational mitigation strategies.
• Acted as legal counsel to multinational and regional financial institutions, advising on local and cross-border finance and security arrangements, including facility structuring, guarantees, and project-linked financing instruments.
• Provides strategic counsel on digital regulation and public policy developments in connection with data localization under the African Continental Free Trade Area and national reforms.

Disputes

• Advising MTN Group in litigation under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act, advising on reputational, compliance, and enforcement risks tied to operations in Afghanistan, the UAE, and South Africa.
• Provided strategic and regional expertise to disputes colleagues in a US$4.5 billion UNCITRAL arbitration concerning a petroleum products supply agreement between a European energy company and a South African distributor. The matter involved Malawi law, with Johannesburg as the seat of arbitration.
• Supported litigation and regulatory strategy in a cross-border commercial dispute involving a telecommunications and microfinance company operating across Africa and a digital platform client, involving overlapping contractual, data protection, and confidentiality considerations. Provided South African law input in relation to filings before the Johannesburg High Court, arising from parallel arbitration proceedings under the LCIA Rules.
• Co-counsel in "King II," one of South Africa’s most complex commercial criminal trials, in which the State sought to prosecute a prominent business figure on charges of fraud, racketeering, and money laundering; successfully securing an acquittal, marking the first case of its kind to reach full trial in a South African court.