Leading Technology Lawyer Joins Field Fisher Waterhouse
07 April 2008
Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP announces today
the appointment as a partner of Hamish
Sandison, formerly partner and Non-Executive Chairman at Bird
& Bird. Hamish joins Field Fisher Waterhouse’s Technology Law Group which will now comprise a
dedicated team of 11 partners and 22 other lawyers.
Hamish has a leading reputation in technology law, with over 20 years’ experience
advising UK clients in the public and private sectors on major
IT projects. He has been a partner
at Bird & Bird since 1992 and was its Non-Executive Chairman
for six years, as well as serving as Co-Head of its International
IT Sector Group and its International Public Procurement Practice
Group. Prior to joining Bird & Bird, Hamish worked for
five years at Linklaters & Paines in London, and for eight
years with Arnold & Porter in Washington DC where he qualified
as a US attorney.
Hamish specialises in commercial work for
public sector clients, including IT
procurement, major PFI and PPP projects, large-scale business
process outsourcing transactions, cutting
edge IPR and e-commerce issues and alternative dispute resolution. He also advises major
users of IT systems and services in the private sector and leading
suppliers of IT to the public sector.
He is a non-executive director of the National
Computing Centre, a member of the Council of EURIM (the European
Information Society Group), the Council of Experts of the
Intellectual Property Institute and the FAST (Federation Against
Software Theft) Legal Advisory Group. He has written and lectured
widely on IT law and intellectual property and is top-ranked in the
UK legal directories in the field of IT law. Computer
Weekly has called him “an ever trenchant interpreter of
the law.”
Hamish’s appointment as a partner will further
strengthen Field Fisher Waterhouse’s well-recognised technology
practice which over the past year has seen a huge increase in both
turnover and volume of deals. In addition it positions the
firm as the leading supplier of legal services to central
Government in the UK.
Field Fisher Waterhouse’s Technology Law Group has undertaken some of the
UK’s largest and most complex public sector projects including
IMPACT (the new police national computer system) and the National
Identity Scheme which will introduce ID Cards. It has also
advised a range of big names including the BBC, Google, Dell and
Orange.
Michael Chissick,
Head of the Technology Law Group at Field
Fisher Waterhouse, said: “We are delighted to welcome Hamish to the
team in what is going to be an exciting year for the Technology Law Group. We are currently
working on a number of high profile projects, including the ongoing
ID cards work. Hamish will assist in enabling us to become the
leading supplier of legal services to the public sector. Drawing on
his lifetime of close ties to the US legal market, he will also
help us to broaden and deepen our transatlantic legal practice.
”
Hamish was selected last September as Labour’s
Parliamentary Candidate for Monmouth Constituency and he holds a
number of elected positions in the Labour Party. He is
committed to the full time practice of law with Field Fisher
Waterhouse but will contest the next General Election as a
Parliamentary Candidate whenever it is called.
For further press information please
contact:
Louise Eckersley, PR Manager,
Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP on 020 7861 4120
Scarlett Yianni, PR Assistant,
Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP on 020 7861 4795