Led by Alex Kirkhope and Sarah Reynolds, the team at Shoosmiths LLP advises on AI-related commercial and regulatory mandates, with a focus on SaaS contracting and governance frameworks. Kirkhope supports on AI terms and procurement arrangements, while Reynolds advises on AI governance and compliance with evolving regulatory requirements, including the EU AI Act. The team also assists on AI policy development, training data strategy and transactional matters, with work centred on compliance, contracting and deployment across technology-driven businesses.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

Alex Kirkhope supported our company with the negotiation and completion of a market integration platform contract. Alex was highly responsive and quickly integrated into our contract strategy and negotiations. His approach to marking up the documents in real time helped with efficient and swift progression to completion. He provided pragmatic, supportive advice that allowed us to grasp the contractual issues rapidly, and it felt like a great team effort. He combines a deep understanding of the continually evolving IT and AI landscape with practical and commercially relevant insight.
Shoosmiths' Artificial Intelligence practice sets itself apart from its competitors. It is forward-thinking and modern in approach, with a commercial and forward-thinking mindset. We were impressed with the advice to support our contractual negotiations in a pragmatic way that met our fairly aggressive timescales.
Sarah Reynolds - I have worked with her before in her previous firm and continue to work with her given her detail-oriented approach with a commercial view.

Key clients

Volkswagen Group UK
Weetabix
Central Co-op
Octopus Ventures
Digital Transformation Capital Partners
Nissan Motor Co.
Clean Growth Fund and UCL Technology Fund
International Procurement & Logistics
Whitbread Group
Estee Lauder Companies
NeuConnect

Work highlights

Delivered AI regulatory compliance advice (centred on the EU AI Act) to one of the world’s largest laptop manufacturers in relation to the rollout of a range of new AI-based product offerings in the EMEA market.

Advised Volkswagen Group UK on a broad range of strategic AI supply arrangements with major AI vendors, supporting VWG’s internal and customer-facing digital, website and marketing operations.