Pulina Whitaker

Pulina has extensive experience managing international employee misconduct investigations and has been appointed as a Compliance Monitor for the United Nations, monitoring two groups of aviation providers and a charitable organization. She has a strong pro bono ethic and has recently being appointed a trustee to Hostage International.

Pulina acts for employers in the defense of employment and data privacy claims, including for unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing, breach of data processing, and employment contract claims. Her data privacy practice includes handling data breach incidents, managing cross-border transfers of personal data, and advising on website “cookie” requirements, privacy policies, consent requirements, and subject access obligations. She has experience working with clients prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation, including audits of data processing activities and diligence of vendor agreements.

Pulina has experience advising on commercial outsourcing and corporate reorganizations, negotiating warranty and indemnity provisions and disclosures in transactional documentation, and conducting global redundancy exercises. She has managed global reduction in force programs for multinational clients and is skilled at navigating individual and collective consultation requirements, including dealing with trade unions and works councils. She also advises on the automatic transfer of employment requirements and related information and consultation obligations in the United Kingdom and across other European jurisdictions. 

Pulina’s practice spans internationally, and she speaks French and Italian.

She has been described by clients in The Legal 500 as “extremely knowledgeable with a practical approach” and is noted as being “a key name for issues covering employment and data privacy work.”

• Advised a company on the investigation of a significant whistleblower complaint
• Provided counsel to one of the world’s largest IT companies on the international employment and stock issues related to its global merger with a US IT company and subsequent global integration issues
• Advised on the joint venture of one of Europe’s largest payment processing businesses
• Advised on the acquisition of a manufacturing conglomerate across multiple jurisdictions, including informing or consulting employee representatives, dealing with a substantial defined benefit pension scheme deficit, and negotiating new service agreements for the board of directors
• Conducted a fraud investigation and liaised with the City of London police 
• Managed the international data breach reporting requirements in over 130 countries relating to a data breach incident
• Advised on the UK Modern Slavery Act requirements for numerous multinational organizations
• Advised on UK gender pay reporting requirements
• Appointed as a Compliance Monitor for a transnational organization relating to employee misconduct matters in numerous global jurisdictions
• Advised on cross-border data transfers for numerous multinationals, including executing model clauses and similar data transfer agreements, the EU-US Privacy Shield, and other alternative options for transferring personal data to non-European jurisdictions
• Advised numerous data controller and data processor organisations, including European, US, Russian, and APAC organisations, on their requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation and local European data privacy laws 
• Defended a sexual harassment claim involving employees in US and UK jurisdictions