Information Technology

Ask anyone in the information technology (IT) industry what inspires them and the answer is likely to be the challenge of predicting and riding continuous waves of rapid change.

We will give you the same answer! Geek law as some call it is a passion at Lowndes Jordan. So, for us, IT law is a focus because it allows us to work with people who are as passionate as we are about what they are doing. People in the IT industry are entrepreneurial and used to seizing opportunities quickly - they have to if they are to stay ahead of the game. We love seeing and assisting great new ideas and business models take shape and become commercially successful.

To do that, we ourselves must be right up to speed with the latest legal developments and innovations. Since those innovations and changes will often spread virally from overseas (but not always - we Kiwis have a great track record in the IT area), we are tapped into international networks in major jurisdictions. We rely on them to give us a heads up on what might arrive soon in New Zealand and they are a ready source of advice for Kiwis moving into offshore markets.

The other great thing about IT law is that it is multidisciplinary. It involves:

• Capital raising, particularly using innovative structures like Limited Partnerships and trust ownership right through to listing and NZX-ASX securities law compliance.
• Shareholding arrangements and investment structures mixed with high-end employment advice.
• Intellectual property obviously but with a real focus on understanding the industry itself whether that be telecommunications, internet structure and governance, web strategies, viral and social networks, online advertising or payment methods, collaborative development, ISPs, software and hardware licensing, bitotech and agriscience, SaaS, cloud computing or any of the other myriad buzzwords that describe a growing and changing industry.
• Law around these areas, such as copyright, trademarks, fair trading and competition, privacy, media rules, censorship, licensing, confidentiality, security, ISP liability, trusts, company and securities laws.
• General business sale and purchase, takeovers, mergers and acquisitions.
• Dispute resolution - hey when you have passionate people; you get disputes! We are used to trying to resolve those in the best way possible for our client. Often that means we play a facilitation role but, if we need to, we can get as aggressive as anyone else - either by ourselves, or, together with the right expert barrister for the job. Lowndes Jordan continues to be one of the biggest supporters of the independent barrister community.

We have the luxury in a top niche corporate, commercial and IT law firm of being able to weld all of this into a real focus. We get a buzz out of it and we find our clients do too.