Stephenson Harwood

Commercial Litigation

Michael is a senior commercial litigator with expertise in the technology and data breach areas. Over the past 25+ years he has represented clients in the UK and internationally on a range of matters including IT and digital transformation disputes, software licensing and large-scale data breach and data privacy civil litigation.

Those clients include; global technology companies in the UK, North America, Europe and Asia Pacific; buyers of technology products and services (including financial institutions and telecoms companies); media organisations; app developers, and on-line traders.

Cases include several large, high-profile disputes arising from troubled IT and digital transformation projects.

In the data breach area, Michael has UK and international experience of civil litigation arising from alleged breaches of data protection legislation including two substantial representative class actions in the English courts.

He also advises in relation to software licensing disputes and protecting IP owners from illegal use of their products by third parties.

Michael is qualified in England & Wales, Australia and New Zealand. He Chairs the ITechLaw Dispute Resolution Committee and, in 2019, co-wrote the Society for Computers and Law Adjudication Scheme. He is also a panel adjudicator for that scheme.

Recent speaking engagements in North America, the UK and Europe include presentations on AI litigation risks, class actions in the data protection area, online harms, and exemption clauses in tech contracts.