Overview
Freehills has one of the largest and best-resourced technology law teams in Australasia, consistently ranked highly in international legal guides, including individual recognition of industry leaders in our team.
Within this team are lawyers who specialise in the resolution of technology-related disputes. We have a track record of assisting the leading companies in Australia to resolve disputes that arise on IT projects, and a range of other disputes involving IT.
We have the resources and the expertise to respond quickly and effectively when projects run into difficulties, often working with our clients to resolve their disputes before litigation becomes necessary.
For those disputes where litigation or other structured alternative dispute resolution mechanisms provide the best strategic option for our clients, we are exceptionally placed to provide the required outcome.
Experience
Our team has proven experience in conducting technology-related litigation and alternate dispute resolution, including arbitration and mediation.
This experience includes large-scale contractual disputes, disputes over performance issues on major technology projects, interconnection and pricing disputes, outsourcing disputes, major software disputes, and disputes arising from the termination of technology contracts.
Examples include:
- Freehills acted for the National Australia Bank in relation to a substantial IT dispute, spanning a number of separate proceedings (including appellate proceedings). The case involved a claim for in excess of $50 billion, a hearing which ran for in excess of 220 days and the delivery of over 50 interlocutory judgments. All claims against NAB and the other defendants were dismissed.
- Freehills acted for Telstra in Federal Court of Australia proceedings arising from two major IT system replacement projects, involving claims in excess of $100 million. The case, which involved allegations of copyright infringement, breach of confidence and breach of contract, was vigorously contested by Telstra and ultimately settled on terms which Telstra considered highly favourable.
- Freehills acted for BHP Billiton in connection with a dispute between it, GEC and the Commonwealth Government (DFAT). BHP Billiton was ultimately successful in a landmark decision, which vindicated decisions taken by it during the project. The technology developed in the project was software for encrypting email messages between Australian embassies situated throughout the world.
- Freehills acted for MITS, one of several defendants in a large IT project dispute. The claim principally involved the alleged failure by EDS to deliver an outsourced IT services project to Integral Energy. The dispute was resolved at mediation on terms which successfully minimised our client’s exposure.
- Freehills acted for ERG (the proprietor of ticketing systems for public transport operations in sites including Melbourne, Hong Kong, Singapore, Rome and San Francisco) in relation to supply and performance issues involved in the installation of a major ticketing system.
Our Litigation team draws on the skills and experience of our IT and IP lawyers whose advisory experience includes:
- advising and defending patents on computer software and hardware
- enforcement of copyright in source code, and in works created using computers
- disputes arising out of the theft of confidential software and technical data, and
- royalty disputes under software licences between vendors and re-sellers.
Working with you
We recognise that IT disputes can be very distracting to the commercial objectives and growth of a business.
The difficulties that can arise between customer and supplier may be many and varied, but generally involve project delays, cost overrruns and scope variations. In addition, a system replacement project or outsourcing arrangement may be disrupted if the system vendor seeks to prevent or restrict access to its software or technical information.
Whatever the cause of the dispute, the options available to appropriately navigate the various internal and external relationships necessary to achieve an acceptable outcome can be very complex, and legal remedies are rarely considered optimal.
Our team works closely with our clients to provide commercial and innovative advice with a view to prompt and practical resolution of any issues that arise.
Our Dispute Resolution team draws, as appropriate, on the skills and experience of our non-contentious transactional lawyers in dealing with particular vendors and customers, and of our IP team, whose lawyers and patent attorneys have broad experience with IT matters. Our team includes lawyers and scientists with computer science backgrounds and qualifications.
