A scholar-practitioner built for the hard version of data work.

I am a privacy and AI governance advisor and legal scholar based in Toronto. I work on law and AI across three jurisdictions, Ontario, Québec, and Brazil, and in three languages, English, French, and Portuguese, moving between the common-law and civil-law traditions. My work in technology operates across the three dimensions of data governance at once: the legal, the ethical, and the operational.

As Legal Compliance Advisor at Open North, I advise on privacy, cybersecurity, and ethical data governance. That work included the Montréal en commun smart-city program with the City of Montréal, which ran from 2021 through early 2026.

I hold a doctorate in law (LL.D.) from the Université de Montréal and conduct AI-regulation research as a research associate at the University of Ottawa's Centre for Law, Technology and Society. I teach at the Faculté de droit (Faculty of Law) of the Université de Montréal, at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University, and in graduate law programs at the University of Passo Fundo and the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ).

I work across law and technology in both directions: bringing governance and legal reasoning to technology, and bringing proven technology into legal practice. I help law firms and legal departments adapt to the evolving AI landscape and adopt the technology tools that have shown real use cases since 2024, with the orientation and verification discipline legal work demands. That work is anchored in the JIRAF and JURIS protocols I created and in the AI training I deliver for legal professionals.

Earlier in my career I served as Chief Information Officer for Fortaleza, a major Brazilian city, where I led municipal digital policy and authored a comprehensive municipal telecommunications law. I also co-founded a technology law firm focused on IT/IP and technology contracts, intellectual property, and cybersecurity for technology companies. In 2025, I testified before the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies on AI infrastructure, regulatory sandboxes, and digital sovereignty.

Cristiano S. TherrienIn Brazilian and formal records, Cristiano de Souza Therrien.