Understand IT contracts and their complexities to ensure you draft watertight agreements and manage the risks effectively.
All those involved in IT transactions need to understand the trends and industry ‘norms’. A tough commercial environment means you need to guarantee you are getting the best terms available and the best deal for your company or clients. This course has been specifically designed to engage both IT suppliers and users of IT to develop their understanding of the structure and content of IT contracts.
Key topics covered include:
- What IT contracts are
- How and why they work
- What should be included
- How to put them in place
- How to overcome the key challenges
- What the IT (separate from the contract) actually means
This practical and intensive two-day programme will boost your knowledge in these six key areas to ensure you get the deal done with the best terms for your organisation.
Practical interactive learning style
This workshop-style programme has been designed to offer a practical solution to your drafting challenges. Throughout the programme the expert presenter will use a balanced mix of theory, group exercises, discussion, sample clauses and case studies to provide you with a comprehensive portfolio of practical tips and techniques to draft IT contracts which meet your commercial objectives as well as ensuring that there are no ‘surprises’ further on.
Benefits of attending
By attending this programme you will:
- Get to grips with the background to IT contracts
- Understand computer architecture, storage devices, software and networks
- Explore Agile and Waterfall methodologies and contracts
- Examine the pros and cons of Software as a Service (SaaS) agreements
- Clarify copyright and database rights and their implications for software activities
- Consider potential disputes with IT contracts and learn how to avoid them
- Learn about open source software licences
- Expand your knowledge of IT reseller agreements
- Focus on IT warranties and specific clauses to be aware of
Certifications:
- CPD: 12 hours for your records
- Certificate of completion
Course Content
Course Provider
Mark Weston ,
Hill Dickinson LLPMark Weston has run his own law firm, Weston Legal, since 1 January 2024. He is also a consultant at Hill Dickinson LLP where he joined in February 2016 as a partner and Head of its Commercial, TMT & IP Practice. Before that, he was a partner and Head of the Commercial/IP/IT Team at Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP and before that, he spent several years at Baker & McKenzie in London and Chicago and has also previously been seconded to Hewlett Packard and other technology businesses. He changed role to become a consultant in Hill Dickinson’s London office in January 2024.
Expertise: Mark’s practice covers both non-contentious and contentious matters in all areas of commercial law, intellectual property law, information technology law, Internet, electronic commerce and on-line services law. He specialises in commercial and Tech issues. Mark is used as a ‘trusted adviser’ by many clients in all sorts of businesses and often acts as ‘private practice in-house counsel’ for many clients. He specialises in tech and internet businesses.
Clients: Just some of Mark’s more well-known clients include Elstree Film Studios, RTL Group S.A., Sykes Cottages, Retailcorp Brands LLC, The Gulf Marketing Group, Moneynetint Limited and the BBC.
Some detail: Mark has extensive experience in advising clients on all manner of commercial matters (such as business planning and solutions, franchising, distribution, agency and marketing) through branding and intellectual property exploitation and licensing, to advice and documentation regarding hardware and software issues (such as development, licensing, maintenance and distribution, SaaS and cloud, Internet transactional solutioning, B2B, B2C and B2G electronic commerce, S-commerce and M-Commerce, social media, outsourcing, facilities management, procurement, IT policies, data protection (privacy), GDPR and freedom of information issues as well as artificial intelligence (AI)). He has a particular expertise in new digital business and revenue streams. He is also experienced in dealing with software disputes and IT litigation. The increasingly extensive media side of his practice relates primarily to publishing (both real world and digital content), to games and gaming platforms (and particularly transmedia technologies), advising companies about their advertising onscreen, online and in print and managing their public communications strategies generally (dealing with the CMA and ASA in the process) – and also a smattering of television, film and music exploitation. Recently he has been very active in AI advice.
More unusual:
Mark has previously spent several months on secondment to Hewlett Packard and he has also been seconded to assist in the legal problems arising in new technology companies such as Symbian. From 2000 to 2001, Mark was resident in the Chicago office of Baker & McKenzie advising US clients on European and UK aspects of IT and electronic commerce law and practice.
Mark is the author of the Legal Practice Companion, a parallel text book used at several law schools, the editor of the IP and Media Law Companion as well as the rest of the Companion series of books published by Bloomsbury Professional, Tottels, Cavendish Publishing and Oxford University Press. He has noted numerous reports for the IT Law Reports and is widely published in Computing, Computers & Law, Computer Law & Security Report, IT Law Today, Intellectual Property World, Solicitors Journal and many other journals both online and offline. Mark has also authored articles syndicated in the national and trade press and is regularly quoted in national newspapers and is heard on radio as an expert in his fields. Mark is the author of the Business Names on the Internet chapter in the PLC Ecommerce Manual as well as numerous other articles on various Commercial & IT law topics.
Mark lectures regularly on all Commercial, IP and IT law topics, including at the IBC IT ‘Summer School’ Programme in Cambridge, England; the Falconbury and MBL two-day and three-day Commercial Contracts seminars (run several times a year) and IT Contracts seminars (run three times a year) in London; and he has previously lectured at the Annual On-line & Internet Commerce Law Institute seminar in Chicago and tutored at University College London. He also runs a programme of bespoke training schemes on commercial law, IP law, IT law, AI law and data law as well as soft skills programmes such as negotiation skills and presentation skills.
Finally, you may have seen that Mark likes blogging and writing books, which are available at all good bookshops! He also appears regularly on BBC1 (usually providing advice on-screen to BBC Watchdog) and also on Sky News as a legal commentator, as well as trying to avoid the huge quantity of pink powder the TV make-up girls want to apply to his increasingly receding hairline.
Who Should Attend
This seminar has been specially designed for representatives from both IT suppliers and users/buyers, including:
- In-house lawyers
- Contract managers
- Procurement managers
- Buyers
- IT directors and managers
- Private practice lawyers and IT consultants
Location
ADDRESS
Rembrandt Hotel
11 Thurloe Pl,
Kensington
London
SW7 2RS
United Kingdom
DIRECTIONS
The Rembrandt Hotel is located at 11 Thurloe Place, London, SW7 2RS. The hotel’s location in central London couldn’t be better, whether you’re travelling for business or leisure. You’ll be right between two of London’s most fashionable areas – South Kensington and Knightsbridge – within walking distance of museums, theatres, Harrods and Hyde Park.
You can hop on the Tube at South Kensington and take the District, Circle or Piccadilly lines direct to the City of London, Heathrow Airport and all other areas of the city. Look out of your window and you may well see the Victoria and Albert Museum – it’s right across the street.
