Technology is the lifeblood of business. It is an enabler to help your business achieve its aims; an engine that powers business processes and gives users the tools to work effectively and efficiently.
Ranked Band 1 by Chambers Asia-Pacific, and Tier 1 by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, for Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT), we are the go-to law firm for the New Zealand private and public sector’s technology needs. We are one of the largest specialist TMT teams at any law firm in New Zealand, giving us the ability to provide the right resources at the right levels of experience. Our clients benefit from our diverse, TMT-specific experience, having worked as in-house counsel, as regulators and for the regulated, as board members and advisers to boards, and as a customer and supplier of technology.
We assist organisations across all industries implement their technology strategies within New Zealand and across the globe. With the pace of technology evolution and the ever-changing business needs, effective supplier/customer relationships underpinned by adaptive and flexible, yet robust, technology are essential to future-proof business.
We act for both suppliers and customers of technology throughout the complete technology project lifecycle. We help customers define the project and the strategy, with the commercial and legal structures, with vendor selection and with drafting, reviewing, and negotiating contracts with the chosen suppliers. We help suppliers respond to public and private sector procurement processes and help ensure that a supplier’s risk profile doesn’t outweigh the rewards on offer.
During the lifecycle of any project we assist clients with change programmes, remedial activities, course corrections and disputes – engaging our market leading litigation team with specialist technology disputes expertise where needed.
Our technology expertise includes advising on:
- strategic supplier arrangements
- technology transformation projects
- master services agreements
- outsourcing agreements
- managed services agreements
- “as a service” and cloud contracting
- hardware procurement
- hyperscaler arrangements
- software development, licensing and support
- Agile contracting
- commercialisation and other intellectual property matters
- mergers and acquisitions of tech and tech-heavy companies
- transitional services arrangements (particularly around tech related activities)
- privacy, data protection and cyber security
- FinTech, including blockchain and digital assets
- non-fungible tokens (NFTs), web3 and metaverse
- contracting for artificial intelligence
- technology regulatory issues (such as BS11)
- large scale technology disputes including litigation and arbitration
- project lifecycle management.
The TMT practice is the last “real” TMT practice in New Zealand – there is no other law firm we would trust for advice.
The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2022
Recent highlights
Procurement advice to Project NEXT
Advising Project NEXT, the Waka Kotahi led project, on its procurement of a national public transport ticketing solution. This is a significant procurement transaction involving the provision of both ticketing services and financial services for an open-loop, account-based, national ticketing solution to deliver a better user experience for users of public transport and a more efficient public transport system.
Building a new digital future
Advising Fletcher Building on a “once in a generation” ERP transformation project for critical technology infrastructure, hyperscaler arrangements, and agreements with both systems integrator and business integrator.
Cloud services advisory to major corporates
Advising a number of large New Zealand-based banks and other major corporates in relation to strategic and business critical cloud / licensing and critical systems projects, and procurement processes with suppliers / vendors including ACI Worldwide, Oracle, SAP, Salesforce, Microsoft and Infor (amongst others).
Sale of Livestock Improvement Corporation’s automation unit
Acting for LIC in the sale of the assets of Livestock Improvement Corporation’s Automation company to MSD Animal Health (a division of Merck & Co).
Partnering for better patient outcomes
Advising Auckland District Health Board on its agreement with Intersystems to deliver a cloud-based, modern, extensible, and fit-for-purpose Patient Administration System.
Transforming New Zealand’s largest city’s core systems
Advising Watercare on its Strategic Transformation Programme for both the critical technology infrastructure (cloud-based) and the associated implementation project (under an agile methodology) with Infor Inc. The process included concurrent negotiations with a number of major software providers.
Bringing Enterprise Agile & DevOps to the outsourcing relationship
Advising a large New Zealand bank on the extension of its core infrastructure outsourcing agreement. Also advised on a new outsourcing arrangement which created novel contract structures to improve the delivery of workplace IT services, leveraging Enterprise Agile and DevOps principles.
High value IT project litigation
Representing a supplier in complex, high value High Court litigation resulting from a large-scale IT systems project for a Government entity.
