“Rory Hishon is a brilliant strategist, and his work reflects his strong legal experience, industry knowledge, and intuition.” Legal 500
“Rory is the king of detail; he knows all his cases inside out and is on top of everything.” Legal 500
“Rory Hishon and his team are highly client-oriented and noticeably strive to fully understand their clients in order to provide well-rounded advice that is fully applicable and implementable. The diversity of backgrounds and expertise they bring to the table have made them a cornerstone of my practice and trusted advisors.” Legal 500
Biography
Rory Hishon is a partner and solicitor advocate in the Firm's Global Commercial Litigation Practice, and co-head of the London Technology Disputes Group.
He represents the world's leading technology and social media companies on high-profile litigation, pre-litigation and contentious matters, as well as regulatory, compliance and legislative advice, including representing clients before international regulators.
Rory is a seasoned litigator, and acts for technology clients in disputes at all levels of court, including on cases involving commercial, consumer protection and data protection law issues. He has also handled international arbitration proceedings under numerous institutional rules.
In addition, Rory advises on regulatory, legislative and related policy issues throughout the technology lifecycle. He leads a global team that acts for online platforms on compliance and enforcement issues under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) and UK Online Safety Act (UK OSA), and has market-leading knowledge of both regimes.
Experience
Representative matters include advising:
- A global technology company on its international litigation and pre-litigation matters for over a decade, including class actions, complex commercial litigation, and high-volume claim portfolios. This includes matters involving data protection, privacy, defamation, hosting provider liability and content regulation, intellectual property and censorship laws.
- Various global technology companies on their interactions with European and UK regulators under online safety and digital regulation laws, including the DSA and UK OSA.
- A global technology company on multiple class actions brought across Europe involving data protection laws and regulatory considerations relating to the use of social media.
- A global technology company on high-profile English litigation proceedings regarding the applicability of data protection laws to online personalised advertising.
- A global technology company on high-profile English judicial review proceedings against Ofcom concerning the application of the UK OSA.
- A global technology company in successful proceedings brought against Russia before the European Court of Human Rights, securing a significant international human rights decision on freedom of expression in the digital age.
- A data centre provider in connection with threatened High Court proceedings arising out of breaches of a master services agreement for data processing capacity.
- Numerous global technology companies (including social media services, messaging services, a video hosting service and an audio streaming service) on regulatory compliance and contentious issues arising out of the DSA, UK OSA, EU AI Act, GDPR, UK GDPR and Terrorist Content Online (TCO) Regulation.
Leading Partner. Legal 500 UK 2026 – Media: Digital content & social
"UK Supreme Court – Employers not liable for data breaches caused by rogue employees", April 3, 2020
"McParland v Whitehead: Chancellor of the High Court gives guidance on the Disclosure Pilot Scheme", March 10, 2020
"Court of Appeal confirms relevance of communications subsequent to an alleged contract", February 21, 2017
"Privileged information is generally safe from Subject Access Requests", February 21, 2017
"Implied terms: Lord Neuberger's Cardinal Rule Applied", February 3, 2017
"Significant Swiss ruling handed down on privilege in anti-money laundering investigations", November 21, 2016
"Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements: What you need to know", October 23, 2015
"The Brussels Regulation Recast: What you need to know", January 8, 2015
