January 2021—Han Santos, PLLC, a leading Corporate and Intellectual Property law firm, announced today that the well-known testing industry lawyer Alan Thiemann will formally join the practice as Partner. Thiemann will head the firm’s Testing Practice, as well as continuing to lead the DC-based Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice.

Thiemann’s 45 years of legal experience includes general counsel to global companies and trade associations, industry lobbyist, and counselor to numerous testing and credentialing organizations. His testing practice centers on federal and state legislative/regulatory issues, litigation, international standards development, licensing IP transactions, and general legal matters around the use of testing in education, employment, certification/licensure, workforce credentialing, and clinical/health. For most of those years, Thiemann has served first as Legislative Counsel, now as General Counsel to the international testing industry trade group, the Association of Test Publishers.

“In the past few years, data privacy, cybersecurity has come to the forefront of all our clients, and now with the expansion on online remote testing, those issues have converged. In Alan Thiemann, we are truly fortunate to have one of the global experts in the field. Because of his leadership and the team that he has assembled, Han Santos has demonstrated itself as capable of handling all such matters, regardless of complexity and client sensitivity, from our Fortune 500 clients to the earliest of startups,” Said Pat Santos, Firm Managing Partner.

Since becoming Of Counsel to the firm in January 2020, Thiemann not only spearheaded the Testing practice but also spurred the decision to bring on counselor Donna McPartland.

Peluso, the former General Counsel at Professional Examination Services (NYC), has deep experience in certification and licensure work and previously handled general corporate issues for testing organizations. Like Thiemann, he also worked with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) on testing-related standards. Peluso will also drive the firm's expansion into the New York area.

McPartland, who joined the firm as Of Counsel this past summer, was Chief Privacy Officer at The College Board and prior to that was CPO at the Graduate Management Admission Council. Her practice focuses on privacy and cybersecurity guidance and she advises a variety of clients in the testing, education, and nonprofit sectors.

This newly formed Testing “trio” are recognized as three of the most knowledgeable testing industry lawyers in the United States, advising clients from complex global organizations to smaller niche companies. Their role in the firm is especially important during this unprecedented time where clients within the testing industry and those relying on testing services, like so many others, face unique challenges due to the rapid shift to online testing, including remote proctoring services.