U.K.-headquartered firm Kennedys recently appointed IT expert Nicholas Blackmore from Corrs Chambers Westgarth as a senior lawyer at its Hong Kong office to bolster its information technology team.

The litigation and dispute resolution specialty firm believes Blackmore’s joining will augment its advisory services for its insurance, reinsurance, and liability industry clients.

Richard Bates, Kennedy’s Hong Kong-based partner, says: "Our clients and, in particular our insurer clients, have an increasing need for information technology and data privacy legal advice; and we are delighted that Nicholas will strengthen our ability to provide this in Kennedys’ usual industry focused, commercial, and cost effective way."

Formerly with Corrs’ Melbourne office, Blackmore has garnered more than a decade of experience in advising on various aspects of information technology law, which include data privacy, procurement, systems integration, outsourcing and tendering, as well as intellectual property and regulatory issues.

“There is a growing awareness of data privacy and technology law issues in Hong Kong at the moment, and I’m looking forward to further developing the firm’s profile in this area," says Blackmore, who is joined by Troy Mossley, another foreign registered lawyer  at Kennedys, who advises chiefly on commercial, information technology, and market data procurement.

One of the representative works Blackmore undertook was the ICT aspects of Foster’s Group’s demerger of its beer and wine operations in 2011, which involved transferring of licenses and services, and hardware and intellectual property to the new wine company in addition to preparing a complex transitional services agreement between the demerged entities.

Between the years 2009 and 2010, he represented NBN Co, the Australian government-owned company responsible for building Australia's A$43 billion ($44.74 billion) National Broadband Network, on the procurement of a wide range of software, hardware, and services necessary to establish its operations on the build, and maintenance contracts for stage one of the rollout of fibre optic cables.

Blackmore has also acted for logistics company Linfox Australia in the 2009 outsourcing of its entire ICT function, which included the preparation of RFP documentation and a draft contract, the assessment of tenders for legal compliance, and negotiations with tenderers. ALB

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