Twenty Essex‘s set is equipped to act for various well-known clients in telecoms and IT disputes. Lawrence Akka KC’s recent case list includes representing the BBC in BBC v Arqiva Limited, in a claim for £20m service credits arising out the alleged significant failure of the Bilsdale Digital TV radio transmission mast, leading to national broadcast outages. Josephine Davies KC is notably acting for Ericsson in Motorola v Ericsson; the case forms an important part of the dispute between Ericsson and Lenovo about the price for a global patent cross licence to various telecoms standard essential patents.
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Profile
Work Department
Arbitration; Banking and financial services; Civil fraud and asset tracing; Commodities and international trade; Energy and infrastructure; Intellectual property; Jurisdiction, conflicts and enforcement; Shipping; Technology, media and telecoms
Position
Lawrence’s practice encompasses high value and technically complex commercial and contractual disputes. He specialises in cases involving new technologies, media and telecommunications, frequently with an international element. Lawrence is instructed to appear in courts at all levels. He also acts in numerous confidential IT, shipping, commodity and commercial arbitrations and mediations in the UK and abroad.
In his technology practice, Lawrence has acted in a wide range of disputes involving software and hardware procurement, outsourcing, development, fintech and blockchain technologies, data protection, e-commerce, broadcasting, internet and telecommunications law. He is the Legal 500’s Technology and Data Silk of the year for 2022.
He has been involved with IT for over 30 years and has a thorough grasp of the technical and other issues involved in the industry. Lawrence is a member of the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce of the Lawtech Delivery Panel, and the ICCA-IBA Joint Task Force on Data Protection in International Arbitration, and is the vice-chairman (civil) of the Bar Council IT Panel. He has written domestic and business software applications and is fluent in several computer programming languages.
Lawrence also has a significant wider commercial practice in shipping, banking, commodities, fraud and commercial law.
He sits as sole, party-appointed and presiding arbitrator in both technology and commercial disputes and has accepted appointments under many different sets of rules.
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