Photo of Joseph J. Lazzarotti

Joseph J. Lazzarotti is a principal in the Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. He founded and currently co-leads the firm's Privacy, Data and Cybersecurity practice group, edits the firm’s Privacy Blog, and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) with the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Trained as an employee benefits lawyer, focused on compliance, Joe also is a member of the firm’s Employee Benefits practice group.

In short, his practice focuses on the matrix of laws governing the privacy, security, and management of data, as well as the impact and regulation of social media. He also counsels companies on compliance, fiduciary, taxation, and administrative matters with respect to employee benefit plans.

Privacy and cybersecurity experience - Joe counsels multinational, national and regional companies in all industries on the broad array of laws, regulations, best practices, and preventive safeguards. The following are examples of areas of focus in his practice:

  • Advising health care providers, business associates, and group health plan sponsors concerning HIPAA/HITECH compliance, including risk assessments, policies and procedures, incident response plan development, vendor assessment and management programs, and training.
  • Coached hundreds of companies through the investigation, remediation, notification, and overall response to data breaches of all kinds – PHI, PII, payment card, etc.
  • Helping organizations address questions about the application, implementation, and overall compliance with European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and, in particular, its implications in the U.S., together with preparing for the California Consumer Privacy Act.
  • Working with organizations to develop and implement video, audio, and data-driven monitoring and surveillance programs. For instance, in the transportation and related industries, Joe has worked with numerous clients on fleet management programs involving the use of telematics, dash-cams, event data recorders (EDR), and related technologies. He also has advised many clients in the use of biometrics including with regard to consent, data security, and retention issues under BIPA and other laws.
  • Assisting clients with growing state data security mandates to safeguard personal information, including steering clients through detailed risk assessments and converting those assessments into practical “best practice” risk management solutions, including written information security programs (WISPs). Related work includes compliance advice concerning FTC Act, Regulation S-P, GLBA, and New York Reg. 500.
  • Advising clients about best practices for electronic communications, including in social media, as well as when communicating under a “bring your own device” (BYOD) or “company owned personally enabled device” (COPE) environment.
  • Conducting various levels of privacy and data security training for executives and employees
  • Supports organizations through mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations with regard to the handling of employee and customer data, and the safeguarding of that data during the transaction.
  • Representing organizations in matters involving inquiries into privacy and data security compliance before federal and state agencies including the HHS Office of Civil Rights, Federal Trade Commission, and various state Attorneys General.

Benefits counseling experience - Joe's work in the benefits counseling area covers many areas of employee benefits law. Below are some examples of that work:

  • As part of the Firm's Health Care Reform Team, he advises employers and plan sponsors regarding the establishment, administration and operation of fully insured and self-funded health and welfare plans to comply with ERISA, IRC, ACA/PPACA, HIPAA, COBRA, ADA, GINA, and other related laws.
  • Guiding clients through the selection of plan service providers, along with negotiating service agreements with vendors to address plan compliance and operations, while leveraging data security experience to ensure plan data is safeguarded.
  • Counsels plan sponsors on day-to-day compliance and administrative issues affecting plans.
  • Assists in the design and drafting of benefit plan documents, including severance and fringe benefit plans.
  • Advises plan sponsors concerning employee benefit plan operation, administration and correcting errors in operation.

Joe speaks and writes regularly on current employee benefits and data privacy and cybersecurity topics and his work has been published in leading business and legal journals and media outlets, such as The Washington Post, Inside Counsel, Bloomberg, The National Law Journal, Financial Times, Business Insurance, HR Magazine and NPR, as well as the ABA Journal, The American Lawyer, Law360, Bender's Labor and Employment Bulletin, the Australian Privacy Law Bulletin and the Privacy, and Data Security Law Journal.

Joe served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Laura Denvir Stith on the Missouri Court of Appeals.

Governor Newsom recently signed two significant bills focused on protecting digital likeness rights: Assembly Bill (AB)1836 and Assembly Bill (AB) 2602. These legislative measures aim to address the complex issues surrounding the commercial use of an individual’s digital rights and establish guidelines for responsible AI use in the digital age.

California AB 1836 addresses

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has created numerous opportunities for growth and economic development throughout California.  However, the unregulated use of AI can lead to a Pandora’s Box of undesirable consequences. A regulatory framework that leads to inconsistent results likely will lead to other problems.  Acknowledging this, the most recent California legislature included a bevy of bills

Announcing its fourth ransomware cybersecurity investigation and settlement, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) also observed there has been a 264% increase in large ransomware breaches since 2018.

Here, the OCR reached an agreement with a medium-size private healthcare provider following a ransomware attack relating to potential violations of the HIPAA Security Rule.

If there is one thing artificial intelligence (AI) systems need is data and lots of it as training AI is essential for achieving success for a given use case. A recent investigation by Australia’s privacy regulator into the country’s largest medical imaging provider, I-MED Radiology Network, illustrates concerns about the use of medical data to

According to the California legislature, audio recordings, video recordings, and still images can be compelling evidence of the truth.  However, the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically, generative AI, has made it drastically easier to create fake content that is almost impossible to distinguish from authentic content.  To address this concern, California’s Governor signed Senate

Data privacy and security risk and compliance issues relating to exchanges of personal information during merger, acquisition, and similar transactions can sometimes be overlooked. In 2023, we summarized an enforcement action resulting in a $400,000 settlement following a data breach that affected personal information obtained during a transaction.

California aims to bolster its California

One of our recent posts discussed the uptick in AI risks reported in SEC filings, as analyzed by Arize AI. There, we highlighted the importance of strong governance for mitigating some of these risks, but we didn’t address the specific risks identified in those SEC filings. We discuss them briefly here as they are risks

A little more than three years ago, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) posted cybersecurity guidance on its website for ERISA plan fiduciaries. That guidance extended only to ERISA-covered retirement plans, despite health and welfare plans facing similar risks to participant data.

Last Friday, the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issued Compliance Assistance Release