London is one of the most vibrant, connected and rapidly evolving commercial environments in the world. The SCL London Group’s remit is to explore the ways in which the evolution of technology and technology law create new opportunities and new challenges for lawyers, businesses, technology professionals, regulators and consumers. We seek to bring together thought leaders in technology and in the law to consider a range of issues, particularly those affecting London and the surrounding areas. These include, for example, how technology is transforming banking, mobile commerce, the public sector and legal sector, challenges facing start-ups, how regulators work together to tackle disruptive business models, the opportunities and risks of Brexit and more.
We are always open to new ideas and initiatives, and we are keen to engage a wide audience, including in-house lawyers, regulators and technical specialists with an interest in the law. We are keen to support and engage the tech community including new entrants and start-ups. So, if there are any issues you’d like to promote, do get in touch.
We meet regularly for committee meetings, and to host and develop Group events.
In September 2017, we held our first event in a series of talks on ‘Technology and the City’ tackling a range of issues such as open banking, mobile payments, biometrics in financial services, the future of financial regulation and more besides.
Watch this space for news of our latest events coming soon….
London Group Chair
Lee Gluyas
Partner, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP
Lee specialises in the resolution of disputes, especially disputes arising out of IT projects, outsourcing agreements, telecommunications contracts, software licenses and general commercial disputes relating to the provision of IT and telecommunications products and services. He acts for clients across various industry sectors, including the financial services, real estate, facilities management, automotive and aviation, energy, consumer products and retail sectors. In addition to representing clients in legal proceedings, he advises on the renegotiation of terms of delivery and settlement of disputes by way of mediation and other processes.
He also advises clients on issues relating to the use of AI technologies, data protection, data security and claims relating to misuse of data. He is a regular speaker at conferences on issues concerning the use, and misuse, of IT.
London Group Committee
David Berry
Partner, Addleshaw Goddard
David is a Partner at at Addleshaw Goddard LLP specialising in technology and outsourcing contracts.
Recent experience includes negotiating the implementation of:
SAP SuccessFactors;
Oracle cloud services master agreement; and
Email migration services from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook.
David has been on a number of secondments with various companies, including Royal Mail, LV= and B&Q.
Andrew Joint
Partner, Simmons & Simmons
Andrew specialises in Cloud, AI/Automation, BPO, business transformational, IOT and complex technology contracting and advising. Andrew is ‘IT Law Accredited’ by the SCL and is editor of the “Computer Contracts” chapter of Sweet & Maxwell’s “Practical Commercial Precedents”. Andrew has been a member of the SCL London Group since 2011 and chaired the group from 2013 – 2016.
Lucy Nicholls Belassie
Legal Counsel, Vodafone
Lucy is a Legal Counsel at Vodafone. Lucy has worked on a wide range of commercial contracts (from large public and private technical RFPs to sub-sea cabling systems) with a focus on privacy and IP related issues. Lucy has a particular interest in how technology is changing the landscape having completed a LLM paper entitled: Digital Assets – A Journey out of the void?
Viv Nissanka
Head of Contract Design and Management, Department for Transport
Viv is a non-practising solicitor who joined the DfT Rail Passenger Services within the Department for Transport in 2016 and is currently the Head of Contract Design and Management. Viv is an experienced commercial solicitor with over 15 years in private practice and in-house with technology companies having qualified at Fieldfisher LLP. Viv has been a committee member since 2006.
Cara Pritchard
Legal Counsel, Vodafone
Cara is Legal Counsel at Vodafone. Cara works on a wide range of tech agreements with a particular interest in privacy related issues. Prior to joining Vodafone, Cara was Legal Counsel at Guardian Media Group, where she worked on a broad range of agreements including SaaS agreements, ad tech agreements, licensing deals with Big Tech and corporate deals.
Katie Simmonds
Technology and Data Protection Lawyer and Emerging Technologies Group Lead, Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP
Katie specialises in resolving complex and valuable disputes where technology is at the centre of the claim. Katie has experience in advising clients in relation to data breaches, including cybersecurity breaches and responding to enforcement action taken by the ICO and other regulators.
Angela Udeh
Associate, RPC
Angela is a Corporate Associate at RPC LLP. Angela has experience working in-house, having undertaken a client secondment at AXA Insurance where she worked on a range of commercial contracts (including handling bespoke NDAs and Data Protection provisions).
Angela’s interests include how technology is reshaping the Lloyds Insurance Market and how technology can be used in increasingly popular areas of InsurTech such as parametrics insurance.
Evie Duggan – Group Secretary
Solicitor Apprentice, DLA Piper
Evie is a first-year Solicitor Apprentice at DLA Piper, currently sitting with the Real Estate Finance and Sport Finance team in the London office. While studying, she wrote academic essays exploring technological advancements and their intersectionality with law and is interested in how law firms keep apace to changes in an environment that is constantly evolving.