The market for IT, communications and outsourcing legal services is undergoing a transformation whereby clients look to quality firms outside London to provide high quality advice at a cost which represents value for money. Our practice covers the full range of transactional, advisory and dispute resolution work in the field.
Assisting clients throughout each stage of a transaction, from structuring the deal, advising on invitations to tender, negotiating and documenting the agreement, to project managing the process, lies at the core of our transactional services. We have handled all forms of agreement and act for both suppliers and customers, frequently working with other professionals such as procurement experts and consultants. Consequently we give proactive and balanced advice on what is achievable. Our philosophy is to achieve pragmatic and realistic solutions, avoiding acrimony and unnecessary negotiation.
We are able to undertake IT and outsourcing transactions on an international scale. We have a network of law firms worldwide with whom we are accustomed to working. Alternatively, we are equally happy to work with our client’s preferred law firms.
Our transactional practice covers:
• outsourcing of information technology and telecommunications networks, systems and services, including systems operations, desk top support, data centre services, call centres, application development and maintenance, and disaster recovery, and business processes, such as finance and accounting, administration, human resources, supply chain management, and customer relationship management;
• procurement and supply of information technology and telecommunications products and services, including turnkey projects, business process re-engineering and systems implementation, software development, licensing and maintenance;
• distribution of equipment, software and services, including reseller and OEM agreements, and preparation of standard terms of business;
• teaming and consortium agreements and the procurement and supply of sub-contracted products and services; and
• e-business-related agreements, including the development of websites and the distribution of products and services on-line.
Advising on the legal issues relating to IT governance, including data protection and, more recently, freedom of information, is an important part of our advisory practice. The nature of the work includes advising on:
• marketing programmes and the pooling of data;
• establishment and maintenance of processes and procedures to comply with regulatory requirements;
• transfer of data outside of the European Economic Area;
• intra-group transfers of data and binding corporate rules;
• data protection implications of outsourcing services;
• compliance with subject access requests; and
• representing clients in their dealings with the Information Commissioner.