Claire Archibald

Claire is a legal director in our education team. Claire specialises in advising education clients with data protection, information governance and freedom of information matters. She is an experienced data protection professional, having led a Data Protection Officer service for schools and academies in a local authority setting, providing external DPO services to around 400 settings across England. Additionally, her prior experience of working in a school gives her a true understanding of the challenges school staff face. She is well-known as a voice of authority on data protection in education with an engaging delivery style. Her legal and project management experience, coupled with mediation and counselling skills mean that clients value not only her knowledge and experience, but also her pragmatic and personable approach.

Claire has successfully embedded a positive information governance culture in multiple school settings, through personalised and proactive programmes as well as supporting them to deal with issues such as data breaches, information requests, and complaints. She is a keen enabler of schools who wish to implement exciting and important new digital projects or data sharing at pace, yet with the best interests of data subjects and key stakeholders at heart. Whether working with the board to review governance oversight of data protection and cyber security, or working with staff to review operational matters, Claire is a knowledgeable leader who tailors her delivery to her audience.

Claire is also an expert on records management in schools and is a co-author of the Information and Records Management Society (IRMS) Records Management Toolkit for Schools and Academies. She enjoys training, public speaking and advocating for the importance of data protection in the education sector.