Cutting edge advice wins BPE’s Technology Team highest professional acclaim
The Legal 500 2022 and Chambers & Partners 2022 rankings have just gone live and BPE’s clients across the Technology sector won’t be surprised to see their Technology Team awarded a prestigious Tier 1 ranking in the Legal 500 in IT and Telecoms and Band 3 in Chambers for Information Technology. This makes BPE one of the most prominent firms for tech sector legal advice in the region.
In the Legal 500 rankings, two of the team’s partners, Emma Hickson and Sarah Kenshall, are also named as ‘Next Generation Partners’ - individuals who have gained significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and taken recent lead roles on multiple projects. Technology Team lead, Christine Jackson, has been singled out for her responsiveness and “proactive, alternative ways of handling issues” by Chambers.
Not only that, for Fintech, Next Generation Partner Sarah Kenshall and her depth of expertise has comfortably secured BPE a place in the Legal 500’s nationwide list of ‘Firms to watch’, positioning it alongside some very highly regarded City firms.
Up with the best in the world
For over 30 years The Legal 500 and Chambers have been analysing the capabilities of law firms across the globe. Using feedback from over 300,000 clients, they highlight the practice areas of teams providing the most cutting edge and innovative advice in the world right now. The coveted rankings are a recognition of BPE’s Technology Team led by Christine Jackson, Rob Bryan’s pioneering work establishing the UK’s first ever data trusts, Sarah Kenshall’s work in supporting innovations in the payment industry and new hire, Rocio de la Cruz’s expertise in international data privacy.
At its heart, the Technology Team has its founder, Rob Bryan. Nationally recognised pioneer and leading light the science and technology sector, Rob’s passion for delivering insightful, pragmatic advice is clearly driven by his desire to ensure outcomes that benefit society as a whole. His extra-curricular non-executive directorships and roles on some of the most cutting edge health sector charities and organisations are just some examples of this. Rob has also made significant contributions to the sector through devising the legal mechanisms for establishing data trusts (one of the key tenets of the National Data Strategy).
City experience, without the City fees
BPE offer their clients ‘Square Mile’ experience without the hefty fees, delivered with a friendly, pragmatic approach. Several of the Technology Team, including Next Generation Partner Emma, started their careers in the City. Emma followed it up with eight years working at a multinational IT services provider as an outsourcing lawyer. She also spent time in the fintech sector as Chief Legal Officer for a Norwegian mobile payments company.
“I advise clients working in both the public and private sectors and have significant experience of working on large-scale public sector and financial services outsourcings from cradle to grave. I really enjoy getting to know my clients and look at the legal and commercial risks they face with a view to providing practical, working solutions which are tailored to meet their needs” she says.
Also a Next Generation Partner, Sarah, is passionate about technology in all its forms and joined BPE’s Technology team in October 2020. She has significant expertise in the financial services and telecoms sectors, having worked in both sectors as a partner in private practice and as lead lawyer on in-house project secondments. “I’ve advised on evolving technologies for over 15 years, including on high profile transformational project procurements, platform agreements, structuring models for commercialising new technologies and accessing data, advising on commercial delivery and providing practical risk analysis and guidance. My experience enables me to bring a depth of significant operational experience when advising my clients.” She adds.
Total confidence from the get-go
The UK is one of the world’s most innovative economies and a global leader in technology and innovation. Tech innovators thrive on collaboration, speed and agility. Traditional law firms, on the other hand, can be everything but.
BPE lawyers ‘get’ the real world that innovators operate in. Having worked as in-house lawyers in tech firms as well as in traditional private practice law firms, they’re uniquely placed to offer legal advice based on a true understanding of how these enterprising businesses actually operate.
“I thrive on giving legal advice to a really wide range of clients” says Technology Team lead, Christine Jackson. “They include creators, buyers, providers and guardians of technology, data, IP, knowledge and information-related services.” She continues, “We understand the pressures on our clients and we give them the confidence to make the right decisions - from early stage businesses looking for risk-focused support that help them scale safely and effectively, to much larger international corporations, advising them on their regulatory and contractual risk management requirements.”
Advice without limits
Because technology knows no boundaries nor does the BPE Technology Team, Spanish and UK-trained lawyer Rocio de la Cruz brings broad expertise in multi-jurisdictional data, privacy, e-commerce and freedom of information legal advice applied to different sectors including tech, telecoms, life sciences, automotive, retail, health, academia, finance, funds and energy.
“As an out of the box thinker I enjoy being creative and innovative at work, an example of which is that I was a pioneer in recommending (and drafting scripts for) the use of privacy policies presented in a video format (or the use video games used to inform children) even before this approach was recommended by the ICO and other regulators.”
Find out more about the BPE Technology Team on their website at bpe.co.uk.
Clear advice for tomorrow’s world
BPE’s Technology Team, complemented by its next Generation Partners, Emma and Sarah, now join their Corporate & Commercial, Commercial Litigation and Employment practice areas in the Legal 500 Tier 1.
By working together across practice areas, BPE offers real diversity of thinking and broader business acumen. Combine this with their flexible, proactive approach and it’s easy to see how they help tech innovators stay one step ahead.
These notes have been prepared for the purpose of articles only. They should not be regarded as a substitute for taking legal advice.