Specialist Software and Technology Solicitors

Specialist Software Solicitors

Advising businesses across a wide range of industries

Retail and consumer cloud services to disruptive technologies

• • Save time getting advice on software contracts and technology issues
  • Describe what you need for your software licences in a common language
  • Legal advice delivered in language you can understand
  • Move your business ahead to address legal developments in your business

Use a specialist software and Technology law firm

We've had clients say to us that their biggest problem is that they haven't come across a law firm that understands software and technology. 

When you instruct an expert technology lawyer for business software contracts, you don't need to:

• spend time explaining how technology works
• answer questions just to find out what you are talking about
• explain the difference between component, library and an application and how (and why) they interact
• say which parts of the technology package are more important than others

It can be counterproductive.

We're specialist technology solicitors advising businesses, and 

• not just aware of IT and software. We understand it.
• advise on right type of contract for the sort of transaction you're looking at
• avoid contracts terms which might not help your business, because the subject matter is not misunderstood
• have a good idea about the common legal issues which confront your business
• present a range of issue the issues that come up, the options available, and how different businesses choose to deal with them.

The difference in the advice you receive can be significant.

Specialist Technology Solicitors

Ideally, your solicitors will understand the subject matter they are dealing with. How your business works to move its technology to the market.

You end up with a better shot to identify quickly:

• what needs attention in your software licensing contracts
• what can be ignored
• what can be negotiated away, and
• the direction you should move to get started in the right direction.

We take a logic-based approach.  We try to operate with a common language to minimise confusion and get on the same wavelength. 

We can connect the dots between commercial problems and move towards resolving the legal problems your business faces. We can understand and adapt into situations quickly and get on your level.

Combine this background with our expertise in software law, and you end up with well-rounded software technology legal advice. You find out things that other lawyers are less likely to be aware of, and cover angles which might be missed.

Software Contracts and Disputes

Solicitors with in-depth technology knowledge are few and far between. We mean the sort of knowledge you get from degree-level qualifications in software engineering. 

Having a software development background is something which helps because you can describe your problems in your own language to us, and we have the other language – legal – necessary to move towards what you need.

You spend less time briefing a specialist solicitor, and we spend less time doing what is required. Our kind of background can assist your business because legal matters are explained on your level.

An understanding of infrastructure such as network communications, databases, knowing where open source licences fit and the structure of software can fundamentally alter the understanding of the commercial and legal positions between the parties and the legal advice given. 

For example:

• when proprietary software licences are compatible with open source licences and when they are not
• identifying when software licensing documentation may be inappropriate for some types of software, firmware and hardware 
• the significance of information, electronic evidence, how to deal with it, make the most of it and know what should be available and isn't

We know that legal problems do not exist in isolation to commercial problems. We can unravel the strengths and weakness of your situation, how you might recover from a bad position, retain hard-earned advantages and when to take a stand and when to run (and the right way to run).

You can move to improve your position and use other parties’ weaknesses to your advantage.

Technology Legal Advice Experience

We can talk to you coherently about the interaction between software licences and commercial arrangements soaked in technology. 

For example:

Contracts and Commercial Transactions

• cloud-based services & SaaS agreements: legal advice on and contract drafting on software-as-a-service contracts, appropriate licensing models, service level agreements (ie SLAs), and rectifying shortfalls in proposed delivery of online services
• data licensing: to include relevant rights and excluded those which are not applicable to the transaction, to avoid over-licensing and under-licensing
• framing contracts: which suit your business requirements, select from the available types of software licensing models, to avoid unnecessary complexity with a focus on simplicity which sets your business up to glide through negotiations
• technology infrastructure: how some contracts might be optimised to take advantage of it
• template contracts: fixing template contracts (SaaS, software licensing, and tech know-how) to handle the risk profile of businesses in different industries 
• how to licence software: which model - or combination of them - is right for your business?
  Businesses needing software licensing contracts have a range of options. What is right has more to do with how it does business with the technologies used, rather than the type of business

Business Disputes

• problem spotting: identify defects in contractual arrangements which can operate to be fatal to your business
• positioning: manoeuvre your business into a superior position in disputes
• electronic evidence: know where the evidence is likely to be located to improve your position where someone has damaged or threatens to hurt your business
• structuring contracts and services: suggest the structure of source code, libraries, and how that might be important to software development contracts, cloud based licencing and software licensing
• service level agreements: finding weaknesses in complex service level agreements, devising plans to exploit them

Software and Technology Advice

Our expertise in software and technology extends into dealing with:

• contractual issues with the different types of software licences
• failures to deliver on what was promised
• confronting allegations that a contract has been breached
• handling consequences of delay delivering contracted services
• termination of contracts in contracts which have soured
• limiting liability if disaster strikes
• re-establishing solid legal footing where there has been slippage
• non-compete clauses and restrictive covenants

Our contract lawyers advise on:

What people say:

Avoid Business Risk

"We had Leigh look over the contracts. He put perspective on where we were at and what we should do before we agreed terms. Once I knew what I would be signing up to, there was no way I was going to expose my business to the sort of risk they were asking us to sign up to."

read on >

Rob Udwin

Director

Metafour International Limited

Straight Talking

"Talk to Leigh because he doesn't speak like a lawyer, but he knows his stuff. He doesn't try to bamboozle you with a load of legal jargon. "

read on >

Nick Snow

CEO

Aerospace Warranty Management Ltd

Waste less Time

"We find our business was more streamlined with less hassle between enquiry and sale.

For us it means that we waste less time talking about the legals and more time growing the business.

The business is in a better place and operates more efficiently because we are not having to work so hard to close deals."

read on >

Joe Hoy

Director

Forensic Analytics Ltd

Not over the Top

We’re a small business and we cannot sustain the way they pile resources in and over-deliver with advice that we can’t use and does not help.

One of the drivers for using a small firm such as Leigh’s is that it does not go over the top. If we want more detail, all we need to do is ask.

read on >

Johan Gustafson

Creative Director

Hattrick Limited

Reduce the hassle 

Know the legal implications of legal documentation prepared for you to sign by third parties.

Include contractual rights omitted from draft contracts which, if you knew what we knew, you would want included.

We check contractual documentation to make sure it does what you think it will do.

Get software legal issues explained in plain language.

Get the benefit of small law firm rates.

Better understand the legal implications of business decisions

Enhance your credibility by being better prepared to walk into negotiations and handle unwanted disputes

Our experience and advice can get business on track faster.

Avoid wasting money and time in the process.

We can set you straight on your software contracts and set you on your way.

Legal advice that is to the point.

Working with you

Our SaaS contracts lawyers and licensing lawyers can operate as an occasional extension of your team. It is not so expensive that it spirals out of control, and you get access to the expertise of commercial contract lawyers, which produce contracts you can stand by.