Digitalisation is redefining how organisations operate, deliver services, and engage with customers.
Embracing new technologies creates opportunities for growth and innovation, but also brings complex legal, regulatory, and operational challenges.
Clients often seek support to manage risk, ensure compliance, and align digital strategies with wider business objectives. Many need guidance on structuring new digital businesses, developing and launching products, managing data, and navigating large-scale technology projects across multiple jurisdictions.
Stephenson Harwood advises clients at every stage of their digital journey, from start-ups to established businesses and regulated entities. Our team brings expertise across the full spectrum of digitalisation projects, including technology refreshes, IT outsourcing, software development and licensing, platform implementation, e-commerce, and online advertising. By working closely with clients to understand their objectives and risk profile, we deliver practical, commercially focused advice that supports successful transformation.
They provide very precise advice and timely support.’
The Legal 500 EMEA 2025
Clients choose us for clear, actionable guidance that enables confident decision-making and delivers business value. With deep sector knowledge, cross-sector collaboration, and a future-facing approach, we help clients navigate change and achieve strategic goals in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Our Services
Providing legal frameworks so that you can refresh and upgrade key systems.
- Cloud delivery
Advising a global consultancy on its transformation project to provide its core on-premises software solutions as cloud-based services. This included auditing underlying licence arrangements and drafting the framework of standard legal terms for its cloud delivery model. - Regulatory support
Advising clients on the outsourcing of critical and important functions and negotiating appropriate protections in third party and intra-group arrangements e.g., under SYSC8 and SYSC13, the EBA outsourcing guidelines, the UK operational resilience regime, and the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act. - Arrangements with hyperscalers
Advising businesses in stress-testing and negotiating – where commercially realistic – the most critical terms of cloud services contracts with ‘as a service’ hyperscalers, including cloud managed service providers.
Supporting clients with platform development and implementation for business transformation.
- Platform development
Advising one of the world's largest outsourced asset manager firms in relation to its pensions and finance portal, that enables the provision of single sign-on view across different platforms, benefits systems and certain Open Banking services. - Platform implementations
Advising one of the leading neural machine translation service providers on the implementation of an on-demand financial and people management platform. - Cloud-based platform implementations
Supporting clients in business-critical enterprise resource planning implementations, including platform licensing, implementation contracts and cloud service provision within supply chains – offering end-to-end support from procurement to delivery.
Advising clients on digitalising services and business units.
- SaaS platforms
Advising an investment trust company in relation to the contractual framework for an SaaS platform in relation to its equity order management system, including a trade settlement interface with its custodian banks and an investment accounting platform. - Creating digital service businesses
We advised on various critical and important outsourcing arrangements, and on the formation of a captive technology vehicle to provide technology and related services intra-group and to third party regulated entities, including on the structure of intra-group arrangements, IP strategy, material procurements and customer contracting. - AI due diligence and procurement
We advise on the procurement of AI systems and appropriate contractual terms to adopt for developing and deploying AI, and on related issues when procuring or selling services embedded with AI.
Pragmatic legal guidance when procuring SaaS solutions.
- Data and AI licensing
Advising a global offshore services provider on the use and licensing of data and AI powered technology to provide predictive insights for the maintenance of oil and gas extraction infrastructure. - Software development
Advising on key software development projects, including delivery models, IP ownership and licensing, opensource software issues, and source code management. - Software licensing
Advising on software licensing models, integrating software robotics and other advanced technologies within legacy software estates, and moving traditional delivery and operations to cloud-based deployment and service models.
