About
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 with law and AI in 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 Privacy Consultant 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.
The depth behind the practice is real. I hold a doctorate in law (LL.D.) from the Université de Montréal and conduct AI-regulation research as an associated researcher 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 Lincoln Alexander School of Law 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 over the past two years, 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.
Credentials
The evidence behind the practice.
Education
- Doctorate in Law (LL.D.), Université de Montréal
- Global Professional LLM, University of Toronto Faculty of Law (completing 2026)
- Máster en Informática y Derecho, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2001)
Certifications
- CIPP/C, Certified Information Privacy Professional (Canada), IAPP
- CIPM, Certified Information Privacy Manager, IAPP
- OCAP®, Indigenous data governance
Current roles
- Privacy Consultant, Open North
- Lecturer, Faculté de droit, Université de Montréal
- Lecturer, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, TMU
- Law Professor (graduate programs), U. Passo Fundo and UERJ
- Associated Researcher, CLTS, University of Ottawa
Languages & bar
- English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
- Licensed lawyer in Brazil (OAB)
- Currently completing Ontario lawyer licensing
Why this combination
Range, read as strength.
Is this a researcher, or someone who delivers?
I am someone who delivers. I have worked in government, the corporate sector, non-profit organizations, and academia, with significant and verifiable results across all four.
Does a civil-law background translate to Canadian rules?
It is the differentiator. I hold CIPP/C, CIPM, and OCAP®, and I work across Canada's three main legal traditions, common law, civil law, and Indigenous legal traditions, to design compatible and efficient solutions for data and AI governance.
What does working across three jurisdictions buy?
I am trained in the North American, European, and South American legal traditions and in international data-governance practice, deeply enough to teach them. That lets me help anyone who needs to understand and implement data and AI policy across these jurisdictions.