The technology sector has become increasingly prominent in the past few years, partly because of the pandemic, and partly due to the emergence of new areas – from AI to fintech to decentralised finance and everything in between. To succeed in this dynamic environment, the best TMT lawyers have had to keep up with rapidly changing business and regulatory trends.

Effective and forward-looking advice from technology, media, and telecoms (TMT) lawyers is becoming increasingly critical in the Asian region. As the pandemic pushed a number of facets of life online, technology today is being used more than ever before. Additionally, an explosion of activity in sectors ranging from blockchain to fintech, to non-fungible tokens and AI has meant that TMT lawyers have had their hands extremely full.

“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the main story has been ‘digital transformation’ where our clients (and) companies from different industry sectors have been prompted to create new strategies in implementing their business model,” says Daniel Pardede, a partner at Hadiputranto, Hadinoto & Partners (HHP), a member firm of Baker & McKenzie International.

The legal industry propped up the boom in activity for all kinds of technology.

“Digitalizing their day-to-day activities to make them more user friendly and reachable for their customers is now inevitable. For example, the use of smart technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence/robotics, machine learning and IT are now more interconnected to assist companies to design their digital trans-formation plans,” says Pardede.

Activity in TMT was noticeable across the Asian region. In the Philippines, for example, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank, has been a key driving force of a noticeable push to adopt digital technologies in banking and financial services, partly in response to the pandemic.

“For the past year, we have seen the increase in demand to embrace digital transformation in both the private and public sector – made more pressing by the pandemic and the BSP’s mandate to rapidly shift the Philippines to a digital economy,” says Mark S. Gorriceta, managing partner at Gorriceta Law.

Lim Chong Kin, managing director of the corporate and finance practice at Drew & Napier in Singapore, has noticed two trends that defined 2021.

“Our data protection, privacy and cybersecurity practice has assisted many clients such as e-commerce companies in the development of their data protec-tion management frameworks. However, where companies seek to digitalise their operations, malicious actors see opportunity in disrupting both large and small businesses for profit and have launched more frequent and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks,” says Lim.

In response, Drew and Napier developed and launched its Data Breach First Responder service in 2021.

“Furthermore, in response to the increasing digitalisation of businesses, our TMT clients have been pushing out new networks and services to enable businesses to continue to operate in a virtual world,” says Lim, who is also Drew and Napier’s head of TMT.

He has noticed increased emphasis on cloud-related services and infrastructure.

“This could be due to many businesses migrating to the cloud for the flexibility and accessibility that it offers. Our clients have likewise been diversifying the cloud services that they offer to cater to a whole range of use-scenarios, such as hybrid cloud models, edge computing and scalable bandwidth. These bring about novel telecommunications issues that we have been assisting clients to navigate in their licensing applications and regulatory compliance,” says Lim.

EFFECTIVE TMT ADVICE

With TMT client requests becoming more varied, the most successful lawyers are the ones that can keep up and evolve with changing technologies, regulations, and markets.

“Some of the most frequent kinds of advice has been transactional advice, which includes acquisition and regulatory advice on data privacy, negative content analysis, 4G/5G technology rollout, e-commerce, cloud services, data centres and artificial intelligence,” says Pardede.

Lim has had clients come for advice on how to implement business models for technology use-cases or improve data protection management frameworks and compliance.

“We have also earned the trust of regulators to advise on various aspects of both existing and new regulatory frameworks and provide meaningful advice on legal issues,” he says.

Location is another consideration. In the Philippines, a common question for clients operating offshore is whether they must secure a license to reach Filipino or Philippines-based customers and partner with onshore entities.

“Our response is generally in the affirmative as a continuity of commercial dealings in body or substance of the business or enterprise passes Philippine jurisprudence’s ‘doing business’ test,” says Gorriceta, who is also the head of TMT at his firm.

KEEPING UP WITH CHANGES

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a faster-than-expected take-up of digital services and TMT sectors are expected to continue growing throughout Asia. Here again, the most successful lawyers have been able to stay ahead of the development curve.

“In Indonesia, government support to implement digital transformation (including the relevant regulatory framework) has started to take shape. Assuming the Omnibus Law enacted by the Government in 2021 is implemented consistently, the wait-and-see period of investors may be over, and we are going to see growth in several TMT sectors,” says Pardede, who points specifically to e-commerce, fintech, on-demand services, telecommunications and the rollout of 5G, and the internet of things (IoT).

In the Philippines, Gorriceta hopes to finally see the release of much-anticipated Digital Asset Exchange (DAE) and Digital Asset Offering (DAO) Rules by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to support and institutionalise the growth of digital asset adoption and develop compliance mechanisms and safeguards to protect investors.

“This year, the regulatory and technical standards of the Philippine open finance ecosystem will be established, which will pave the way for the integration of all fintech players in the country,” he notes.

Increased digitalisation should also drive demand for infrastructures such as data centres, submarine cables and 5G networks.

“Singapore has been honing its reputation as among the best fintech hubs in the region, and we can likewise expect more fintech-related issues to emerge, such as the blockchain, regulation of cryptocurrencies, and Web 3.0. My team has been assisting clients in these spaces and we expect an even busier time ahead,” says Lim.

And going forward, the best TMT-focused lawyers can expect plenty of work.

“While economies are slowly opening up from the COVID-19 pandemic, digitalisation is a trend that has taken a life of its own and we can expect digitalisation of busi-nesses to continue at a red-hot pace as many consumers now expect access to work, products, services and experiences anytime and on-demand,” says Lim.

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