TMT (technology, media and telecoms)
CMS’ London commercial team advises on a broad spectrum of matters, including supply arrangements, outsourcing, manufacturing and procurement contracts, as well as distribution, licensing, franchising and collaboration agreements. The team also has experience with complex multi-jurisdictional partnerships and supplier ecosystems. Sector expertise is a key feature of the practice, with Matthew Bennett, Dominic Dryden, and Sam De Silva driving a retail and logistics practice, working with world-renowned clients. Sam Oustayiannis works in the sport and media sectors, while Ian Stevens is active in the financial services industry. Sarah Hanson is noted for her life sciences and healthcare practice.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
- Profile
Profile
Position
Partner
Career
Ian is a partner in our Technology and Sourcing team, leads our Fintech group and is one of the leaders of our firm’s technology, media and communications (TMC) sector group.
Ian specialises in advising on outsourcing, offshoring and shared services (both BPO and ITO), procurement, logistics and other strategic or complex commercial contracts, ventures and arrangements. He also advises extensively on the procurement, exploitation and supply of technology, including digital transformation, new operating models, platforms and the deployment of open banking, payments, cloud, machine learning, robotics, automation and blockchain solutions, cyber security and data protection.
Ian is independently recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers as a leading outsourcing expert and is ranked as a “Star Lawyer” in IT by Acritas. He has extensive experience advising customers and suppliers across a wide range of sectors, with a focus on those operating in regulated sectors including financial services, energy and utilities and TMC. His clients include some of the largest global suppliers of technology and services and major financial services, energy and utilities firms and a wide range of scale-up and start-up businesses, including members of the firm’s equIP incubator programme.
Ian is CMS’s representative to the Global Sourcing Association and TechUK, where he is a member of a number of special interest groups and committees, sits on the Financial Markets Law Committee’s FinTech scoping forum and the Digital Leadership Forum’s AI for good steering committee, and is a member of the IAPP, SCL and the iTech Law Outsourcing Committee.
Memberships
- iTechLaw
- Financial Markets Law Committee (FinTech)
- Digital Leadership Forum
- Global Sourcing Association
- TechUK
- The Society for Computers and Law
- International Association of Privacy Professionals
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Practical application of expertise.’
‘Ability to effectively resolve issues.’
Key clients
- Esports World Cup Foundation (“EWCF”) Sky Hard Rock Digital Integrity Action New Balance Cropsy Technologiee
Work highlights
Advised the Esports World Cup Foundation on all aspects of the inaugural 2024 Esports World Cup, including negotiating key commercial agreements with major games publishers such as Tencent and Riot Games, structuring team participation agreements, and advising on sponsorship, merchandise, and reseller contracts to support the event’s commercialisation.
Advised Hard Rock Digital on a number of international social gaming deals.
Advised Integrity Action on a multi-million-pound supply and services contract with Crown Agents Ukraine for the procurement and delivery of critical medical equipment to Ukrainian hospitals. This included drafting key agreements with local Civil Society Organisations and integrating UBS Optimus Foundation funding terms to support the Children’s Resilience Fund initiative.