Hellmuth & Johnson’s principal Information Technology & eCommerce attorneys have more than forty years of practice experience.  This includes meaningful stretches both as in-house counsel and in private practice, and both in small firm and international firm settings.  This diverse background allows the Information Technology & eCommerce team at Hellmuth & Johnson to add value by bringing an unusual blend of business experience and multidisciplinary perspective to our clients – in addition to top flight legal experience.     

Our lawyers frequently serve as lead counsel to negotiate agreements in “mission critical” IT and eCommerce engagements.  We have drafted and closed hundreds of IT and eCommerce agreements, including multiple seven and eight figure agreements for internationally, nationally and regionally recognized organizations. 

We have represented clients in a wide range of industries, including without limitation:

• Healthcare
• eCommerce Services
• Insurance
• Financial services
• High tech
• Manufacturing

We service all aspects of our clients' Information Technology and eCommerce needs, such as:

• Major system acquisitions
• Electronic Health Records (EHR), Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Hospital Information Systems (HIS), and related sub-systems
• Claims and payroll systems, and related sub-systems
• Licensing
• Complex licensing agreements and related services, including related service level agreements, data privacy obligations or agreements, complex SOWs and support services
• Client-hosted, ASP and Software as a Service (SaaS) agreements
• Database licenses
• Software development agreements
• Complex development engagements
• Joint development agreements (shared IP)
• Telecommunication agreements
• Full telecommunication system replacements and acquisitions
• ATM
• Frame relay
• Phone service intrastate/interstate/international
• Area networking
• Cellular
• Circuit, Router, T1 Lines, etc
• Pagers and custom paging software
• Dispatch
• Web site
• Development agreements
• Terms of use; browse-wrap and click-wrap
• Web site privacy policies
• General Technology Agreements
• Co-branding agreements
• Consulting agreements
• Outsourcing agreements
• Source code and other technology escrows
• Hardware purchase and lease agreements
• Co-location agreements
• Disaster recovery agreements
• Internet data services agreements
• Data privacy and data security agreements
• Credit card agreements (domestic & international)
• Customer management agreements
• eCommerce services agreements
• Service level agreements
• IP rights assignment agreements
• Open source agreements
• B2B and B2C eCommerce agreements for national financial entities, healthcare and start-up companies

For a list of some of the vendors with whom we have negotiated deals since 2000, please click here.

We regularly represent large international companies, but we are equally adept at working with start-up entities.  In fact, it is not unusual for our clients to come back to us after leaving successful careers with large internationally known companies to start-up their “Internet dream.”  The bottom line?  We understand the importance of offering real world advice in a business realm that is literally without borders.

Training Services

Ray Bonnabeau, the partner who serves as chair of our Information Technology and eCommerce Group, is often called upon to train in-house counsel, senior level executives and other professionals within large and mid-sized organizations on IT and eCommerce topics.

The training courses are designed to impart knowledge, strategy and contractual language (including potential fallback provisions) to attendees.  Ray’s training goal is simple – to better enable the organization to protect itself.  Some of his customized training courses have included:

• Software Licensing Agreements
• System Integration Agreements
• Treating IT Contracts as Business Management Tools
• How to Acquire IT the Right Way
• Managing the IT Contracting Process

Ray is a frequent presenter at continuing legal education seminars, and he is an Adjunct Professor at William Mitchell College of Law, teaching Licensing and Intellectual Property Transactions, both advanced skills-based courses.

Joe Beckman has enjoyed a robust technology transactional practice for the better part of the millennium.  He is a technophile who repaired his PCjr by welding in new resistors in the Georgetown physics lab, paid more for his first laptop (in 1989) than he did for his first car, and who is constantly rewiring the house and his family’s computers, recorders, etc. A recovering trial lawyer with multiple verdicts in complex commercial cases to his credit, Joe brings with an “end game” perspective to negotiations, and crafts agreements that focus the parties on working through those unexpected bumps that may occur as the technology laps the legalese. Joe brings his trial lawyer flair and jury communication skills to the podium, and he has trained  attorneys and employees and eager law students on subjects such as:

• Software Licensing Agreements
• Managing the IT Contracting Process
• IP Considerations in International Transactions
• Corporate Governance – Observing the Corporate Veil in Day-to-Day Business Activity
• Attorney-Client Privilege in the Contract Negotiation Arena
• Data Privacy in IT Agreements
• PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry, Data Security Standard) Obligations in the Contracting Process
• Risk Allocation in Technology Agreements

An energetic and animated speaker, Joe is of Italian ancestry. As such, seminar attendees are cautioned to bear in mind that Joe often eschews the use of the microphone, and to understand that he’s not shouting . . . that’s just the way he talks!