Our scholars 2020 – Louiza Kofina

What is your legal background, your current occupation and country of work?
I am currently working as a senior associate lawyer for a law firm based in Nicosia, Cyprus.

How do you use European law in your current work?
As part of my work as a lawyer, I use various EU instruments on a daily basis toprovide my clients with the best possible advice and to ensure that I will properly carry out my professional duties.More specifically, I use the MiFID II Directive 2014/65/EU daily as well as the relevant delegated regulations issued to supplement the MiFID II Directive, such as the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565, and the relevant data protection legislative framework, including without limitation, the GDPR and the various guidelines issued atEuropean level, for instance, from the EDPS.

What was your motivation for attending this particular event?
My main area of practice is the financial services market and the protection of personal data and privacy; areas which are mostly regulated by EU legislation. I am also a PhD student at the law department of the University of Cyprus, where my research is focused on the possible intersection between competition and data protection legislation. European Law plays a significant part of not only my professional life as a practicing lawyer in the private sector, but also for my academic life as a Ph.D. student.
The topic of my PhD research relates to the areas of competition law and data privacy, and the possible intersection that may exist between them. Therefore, it is my strong belief that it would be most helpful and beneficial for me to have the opportunity to attend the conference, listen to the various interesting presentations that are scheduled during the 2-day seminar and interact with practitioners from all over Europe and have the chance to discuss and share views on the relevant matters.

How did you benefit from the scholarship?
I am very grateful to the Academy for the privilege of receiving the scholarship and allowing me to participate in the Annual Conference on European Data Protection Law, during these hard times of the corona virus pandemic. During the 3-day webinar event, I had the opportunity to attend the various presentations held from distinguished speakers that covered the most recent developments in the area of data protection. Attending this conference was the best option for me, since it allowed me to further expand my knowledge in the data protection field and will undoubtedly help me to deal better with practical issues arising daily at my work.