Hamish Fraser > Bird & Bird > Sydney, Australia > Lawyer Profile
Bird & Bird Offices
Level 22
25 Martin Place
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia
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Hamish Fraser
Work Department
Commercial
Position
Partner
Career
I’m the lead partner of our Australian IT and Communications Groups in Sydney, where our clients are at the cutting edge of legal and regulatory developments in the region.
I advise on commercial issues and regulatory matters for clients in all facets of the information technology and communications industries. Whether buying or supplying IT and communications, I provide detailed advice and contracting experience on digital businesses, software, cloud, distribution, confidentiality, e-commerce, security, IT procurement and outsourcing. I have acted in a number of patent, copyright and trade mark cases.
Before joining Bird & Bird, I held a senior legal role at Optus, Australia’s number two telecoms carrier, where I was involved in negotiating large scale telecoms supply and acquisition agreements and was the key lawyer responsible for the firm-wide procurement function. In addition, I was involved in regulatory issues, industry code development and was responsible for managing a number of high profile disputes. I also spent a year on internal secondment to the national Managing Director of Optus Business.
Over many years, I have been a prominent contributor to public policy discussion in the industry and mainstream press as a result of my extensive practice in convergence, social media, privacy and data protection.
Admissions
- Law Society of New South Wales, Australia in 2000
- Law Society of Queensland, Australia
- Law Society of Victoria, Australia
Education
- The University of Queensland, Law
- The University of Queensland, Engineering
Lawyer Rankings
Australia > IT and telecoms
Bird & Bird is a key player in the TMT space and is sought out for its advice, which not only covers data protection and privacy, but also extends to the law covering space, satellites and autonomous vehicles. The team is co-headed by Hamish Fraser, who is active in commercial and regulatory matters in tech, and Thomas Jones, who is well equipped to handle licensing, procurement, distribution and IP issues. Shane Barber is another key partner, specialising in media and communications. All named practitioners are based in Sydney.
Australia > Data protection
The privacy and data protection team at Bird & Bird is ‘unique because it has excellent global reach and expertise’: working as part of an integrated global practice, it tracks international precedents to best support clients within Australia’s changing regulatory environment. The ‘very knowledgeable’ Sophie Dawson co-leads the team from Sydney, advising major companies on privacy law reform and providing strategic privacy advice. Also in Sydney, Hamish Fraser co-leads the team with notable experience in providing data breach advice to global platforms and cloud providers. Privacy compliance is an area of strength for Sydney partner Julie Cheeseman, who works with clients from a range of industries encompassing the media, technology, retail and consumer sectors, among others.