About the IAPP

Clara Cottrell is Assistant General Counsel, Compliance & Privacy for BASF Corporation in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. A former Intellectual Property attorney, Clara focuses her practice on data privacy and security compliance for BASF Corporation in the United States and coordinates North America’s data privacy positions. Clara and her family reside in the Chapel Hill area of North Carolina, from which they base their many RV adventures.

Clara has a BS in biochemistry from North Carolina State University, which was put to good use as an Intellectual Property attorney with Smith Moore Leatherwood (now Fox Rothschild) upon her graduation from Wake Forest University School of Law and subsequent clerkship with the Honorable Ben F. Tennille (retired) at the North Carolina Business Court. While in her Intellectual Property practice, Clara was named to the Triad Business Journal 40 Leaders Under Forty (2012), a North Carolina Rising Star by Super Lawyers (2013), and a Legal Elite Young Guns Best Under 40 by the North Carolina Business Journal (2013). Clara is actively involved in the North Carolina Bar Association and is a former chair of the Corporate Counsel Section, was on the inaugural council of the Privacy and Data Security Section, and is currently a member of the Board of Governors. She joined BASF Corporation in 2013 as intellectual property legal counsel for the agricultural business. As her practice, and the world, changed, she moved to BASF Corporation’s Legal Compliance team supporting data privacy and security for BASF Group in the United States in 2020. Her favorite perks at BASF are the global colleagues she interacts with every day and the wine cellar in Germany.