The January AGM of the Society for Computers and Law saw
changes in the Board of Trustees. Roger Bickerstaff and Clive Freedman retired
from the Board and Neil Brown, Toby Crick and Cynthia O’Donoghue became SCL
Trustees. Roger and Clive, having completed a term as trustees, were appointed
as SCL Fellows.
New Trustees
The new trustees are all well known in tech law circles and each
has a long-established relationship with SCL.
Neil Brown runs decoded:Legal,
a law firm specialising in Internet, tech and telecoms law. He helps Internet,
telecoms, technology and healthcare start-ups and businesses achieve their
commercial goals, and navigate often complex regulatory environments. Alongside
his practice, he sits on the Law Society’s Technology and Law Reference Group,
and the Independent Digital Ethics Panel for Policing. He is a member of the
Institute of Law and the Web at the University of Southampton, where he has a
vice-chancellor’s scholarship to research his doctoral thesis on the regulation
of over the top communications services.
Neil sat on the media board for a number of years, helping
to guide the direction of Computers & Law and the SCL website content, as
well as writing the occasional article and book review, and he co-chaired the
society’s 2016 Tech Law Futures conference. Neil said ‘I’m delighted to be able
to continue my long-standing relationship with the SCL. Initially, I will be
supporting the roll-out of the SCL’s LLM, further increasing our links between
the practitioner and academic communities, and I look forward to contributing
to the numerous activities the SCL undertakes’.
Toby Crick is a Partner in the Commercial Technology group
at Bristows LLP based in London. Toby’s work focuses on software licensing,
development and integration projects; outsourcing and telecommunications in a
range of sectors including financial services, life sciences and central
government. Toby spent many years working as part of the in-house legal teams
of telecoms, outsourcing and system integration suppliers and has a particular
interest in the practical application of new technology in organisations and
creating balanced contracts to enable that to happen. Toby lectures at UCL and
QMUL on agile software, open source software, tech procurement and outsourcing
and is a member of the SCL’s outsourcing committee.
Toby describes himself as ‘really honoured to have been invited
to become an SCL Trustee’. He sees it as a key part of his job to share his
knowledge and to gain expertise from others’ experience of practising tech law
and feels that SCL provides a unique forum for this to happen. He said:
‘since qualifying in the late 90s,
at the start of the first dotcom boom, technological driven change and
technology businesses have transformed society and the economy. I consider
myself really lucky to have chosen to work as an IT lawyer during this time and
to have been able to benefit from the knowledge transfer and networking
opportunities afforded by the SCL. I look forward to working with my fellow
Trustees and the wider membership to build on the great work the SCL has done
over the past several decades and to embrace the next wave of technological and
regulatory change that the tech world – and the IT law profession – now faces.’
Cynthia O’Donoghue leads Reed Smith LLP’s International
Information Technology, Privacy & Data Security practice and is a partner
in the IP, Information & Innovation group in London. Cynthia specialises in
technology, data, cyber and commercial law. She advises across a wide range of
sectors on IT and business process outsourcing; application development and
management; software and content licensing; apps and smart technology;
e-commerce, including hosting and content management; cloud computing and
systems integration, FinTech, mHealth and social media.
Cynthia was delighted to have been invited to join the SCL
Trustees. The relationship between technology and the law has been both the
focus of her career and something of a passion. Prior to becoming a solicitor,
she ran a software company and has found that bringing that tech knowledge to
law has proved to be a real asset. She has an interest in the strategic and
policy aspects of law and has participated in workshops hosted by policy
makers, academia, authorities and trade associations/industry organisations,
such as the World Economic Forum and the UK Houses of Parliament Industry and
Parliament Trust meeting.
New Fellows
Roger Bickerstaff and Clive Freedman became the 13th and 14th
SCL Fellows. Both have completed long terms as SCL Trustees and have made
important contributions to SCL’s development over those years.
As well as a long period as an SCL Trustee, Roger Bickerstaff was Chair of SCL until Mark O’Conor
took over. He remains a member of the SCL Editorial Advisory Board and looks
forward to continuing a strong SCL connection and encouraging colleagues to
make full use of SCL’s resources and to lend their expertise to reinforce SCL’s
educational function. Roger is a Partner at Bird & Bird, where he is a member
of the International Tech & Comms Sector Steering Group and leads our
Digital Technology Solutions, Internet Services and eCommerce industry
initiative. He has over 20 years’ experience and is especially highly regarded
in public procurement fields – he is an external lecturer on procurement law at
Rome University and Nottingham University.
Roger said:
‘Being involved with the SCL provides a much wider viewpoint on Techlaw issues
than the routine of day-to-day work. There are always new people, interesting
ideas, and opportunities to do something a little different. For me, being an
active part of the SCL rejuvenated my interest in Techlaw. It remains a key
part of my working life and has provided lots of lasting friendships’.
Barrister Clive Freedman has
over 40 years’ experience, with a practice which covers information technology,
banking, building and engineering, and commercial fraud. But it is his
particular interest in IT law that drew him to SCL, where his technical
expertise has been almost as valued as his legal insights. Clive is a CEDR
Accredited Mediator and a Chartered Arbitrator, and is named as a leading
junior in Information Technology in Legal 500 and Chambers &
Partners directories.
Clive said:
‘The last 25 years have seen great
changes in both the nature of the legal problems which lawyers have had to
address and in our methods of working. The pace of change shows no sign of
slowing down, and the SCL will I am sure continue to play an important role in providing
a forum for discussion of the changes we face and the new legal problems which
will arise. I look forward to continuing to attend the Society’s events. I have
made many friends as a result of my membership, and am honoured to have been
made a Fellow.’
