The Lord, Bissell & Brook Business Technology Group is a multi-disciplinary team of lawyers that combines practical industry experience and in-house understanding with the skills of a leading private practice. Our lawyers use a proactive approach by assisting businesses to take advantage of the opportunities available to them and acting quickly and decisively to provide creative solutions. Companies count on us to secure, leverage and defend their business interests, from intellectual property and technology rights to outsourcing business processes and development of electronic commerce initiatives.
Our Business Technology Group clients include Fortune 500 companies, mid- and small- cap enterprises, and Internet start-ups. They include businesses in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, entertainment, media and broadcasting, manufacturing, merchandizing, franchising, consulting, accounting, insurance and financial services industries throughout the world. Our lawyers have the transactional experience to help clients complete deals, acquire technology and establish relationships in today’s digital environment, as well as the dispute experience to pursue or defend claims when needed. We help our clients win.
Electronic Signatures
The Business Technology Group can provide the legal, regulatory, litigation, technological and other practical risks associated with an e-sign process. Our lawyers have helped clients design and implement effective electronic signature processes, from voice signatures to clicking “I Agree” on web sites to signing a hand held device. We have worked with a number of electronic signature vendors and understand the role technology plays in an effective e-process. With our assistance, our clients have confidently designed and implemented effective electronic signature processes.
Our Electronic Signature Publications
Information Management and Privacy
Information is the currency of our economy and the lifeblood of organizations. The management of information to achieve optimal productivity, relationships and risk management is one of the most fundamental management challenges, yet one that is constantly changing along with technology, threats and compliance standards. These challenges are almost never best viewed in a vacuum -- as an issue of compliance with a particular privacy law, for example -- given the complexity of information management and of the many layers of regulatory and liability standards that apply to it. We help our clients to identify their most important information management legal challenges, and to meet those challenges.
In recent years, the largest information management legal risks faced by organizations have involved breaches of unencrypted personal information and spoliation of information relevant to a dispute or investigation. We have helped our clients respond to these and other risks with strategies, policies, processes and assistance in technology evaluation, as well as contributing to crisis management and other incident response. We have also helped our clients transform the relationships between law, IT, compliance and risk and records management departments within their organizations to better respond both to current and future risks. Whenever needed, we can respond immediately with recommendations reflecting a depth and breadth of practical experience in the area and well-seasoned processes, practices and other knowledge. Our attorneys are also involved in helping to define changes in the law, providing our experienced perspective on the impact of law and standards governing privacy, security and records and document management.
Our Information Management and Privacy Publications
Intellectual Property
We provide assistance in the acquisition and development, protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. The Business Technology Group regularly drafts and negotiates research and development agreements, licensing agreements and other agreements involving the creation or acquisition of rights to intellectual property rights. We assist clients in the protection of their intellectual property rights by assisting with the selection and screening of trademarks and the registration of trademarks and copyrights, both domestically and internationally. Finally, we assist our clients in the commercialization and leveraging of the intellectual property rights they develop and acquire through the negotiation of licenses, joint ventures, manufacturing and supply agreements and similar arrangements.
Our Intellectual Property Publications
IT Disputes and Litigation
The Business Technology Group litigation lawyers work closely with transactional lawyers to determine how best to position our clients should the matter not be resolved amicably. At the earliest stages of an IT transaction, we involve lawyers experienced in IT-related disputes to ensure that lessons learned through contentious litigation are incorporated into the fabric of a deal. Project failure rates in the IT area are quite high. We provide continuing counsel on issues regarding contract interpretation, compliance and amendment issues that frequently arise in complex IT projects. This continuing contact has permitted us the opportunity to counsel clients engaged in agreements that have come unraveled.
The Business Technology Group has the depth and breadth of experience to take cases to trial and to explain the legal, technical and human issues to the trier of fact. As a result of years of experience, our lawyers have been exposed to the common fact patterns, the issues on which expert testimony may be needed, and the business judgments associated with large-scale IT projects.
Our IT Disputes and Litigation Publication
Outsourcing & IT Transactions
The Business Technology Group provides insight into the critical outsourcing and licensing issues such as structuring fair limits of liability, handling the regulatory aspects of the transaction, and ensuring that any early termination can be accomplished at a reasonable cost with minimal business disruption. Relying on our experience in traditional legal disciplines, such as finance, tax, intellectual property, and regulatory counseling, our lawyers have provided some of the world’s leading companies with focused and practical advice for handling the particular issues presented by outsourcings and other IT transactions.
Our multi-disciplinary team also includes lawyers focused primarily on dispute resolution and litigation, including avoiding and managing potential disputes before they occur and, when necessary, using proven alternative dispute resolution methods for resolving the often complex, technical issues at the heart of any unsuccessful IT project.
Our Outsourcing and IT Transactions Publications