who we are

Professional Experience

Francisco has been a Consultant at PaxLegal since September 2025, focusing on data protection and European regulation.

He primarily advises in the field of European Union law, with particular emphasis on data protection within the technology and digital sectors. He has supported companies of various sizes across multiple industries — including healthcare, financial services and artificial intelligence — in compliance processes. He is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and holds the Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E) certification, as well as Implementer and Auditor certifications from the Europrivacy Academy.

Alongside his legal practice, Francisco is actively engaged in academia. He is a guest lecturer and co-coordinator of the Postgraduate Programme in Data Protection at the NOVA School of Law, and is also part of the teaching faculty of several postgraduate programmes at the same institution, as well as the Advanced Programme in Digital Law at the Universidade Europeia. In terms of research, he is a member of the NOVA Consumer Lab and the Data Protection Observatory at NOVA School of Law.

Prior to joining PaxLegal, Francisco interned at the Court of Justice of the European Union and also worked with the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union. In his consulting practice, he has advised startups and European companies — with a particular focus on Switzerland, Germany and Portugal — on data protection, cybersecurity and European regulatory matters.

Academic Background

Francisco holds a law degree from NOVA School of Law, where he is currently pursuing a PhD in European Constitutional Law. He has also completed a postgraduate programme in Data Protection Law at the Centre for Private Law Research of the University of Lisbon Faculty of Law.

As part of his academic work, Francisco has participated in several national and international conferences and was awarded by the Constitutional Court of Portugal in the essay competition “The Principle of the Democratic Rule of Law in the Case Law of the Constitutional Court”.

Publications

Francisco is the author of several scientific articles in the fields of Constitutional and European Law, including:

• “Who Speaks on Our Behalf? National Identity and Constitutional Adjudication in the European Union” (with Francisco Pereira Coutinho), in Revista Jurídica Portucalense, Vol. 1, No. 38, 2025.
• “Web Scraping Versus Data Protection: Can a Balance be Found for AI Training?” in Navigating the AI Revolution: Data Protection and Innovation for a Sustainable Future (ed. Marco Scialdone), Lefebvre Giuffrè, 2025.
• “Exploring Legal Bases for AI Training under the GDPR” (with Sebastian Schneider), in Privacy Symposium 2025 (Springer).

Francisco also regularly publishes shorter research articles within the scope of his work at the NOVA Consumer Lab of NOVA School of Law.