Speakers:

David Cran - Head of IP and Technology, RPC

Mark Crichard -  Head of Technology & Outsourcing, RPC

6pm GMT, Thursday 28th September 2023

Ironmongers Hall, Shaftesbury Place, Barbican, London EC2Y 8AA 

Konvergent’s most viewed LinkedIn post in 2022 was a simple one – “Why do Chief Architects not become CIO’s?”. The comments section of the post provided a myriad of reasons, but the most popular one was a perceived lack of business acumen.

It is also well known that 70% of transformation projects fail. This is for several reasons, but they can bring expensive and draining legal disputes, which Chief Architects are often called into.

So as part of our Upskilling Architecture roundtable series, aimed to help the architecture community improve their business acumen, we’ve called upon the expertise of David Cran and Mark Crichard – two of the UK's leading technology lawyers. David and Mark will discuss how to set up projects for success, the contracting pitfalls to avoid, and effective management of distressed projects.

 

Bring a whole new perspective to your organisation’s technology issues. Join us at our Upskilling Architecture roundtable. Guests of invitees are very welcome, as we believe this topic will be highly relevant for Chief Architects, Programme Managers, Procurement, and anyone senior who is involved in buying or delivering technology solutions.

As usual, we will have the opportunity to network following the main discussion. We look forward to seeing you in September.

David is Head of RPC's IP & Technology team.  He has extensive experience of technology transactions and disputes, particularly in the TMT, financial services, and retail & consumer sectors. 

David is recognised as a Leading Individual for TMT in Legal 500 and as a leading technology lawyer in the Who's Who Legal Global Guide.  He is a member of techUK and has served on the Law Society's Technology and Law Committee.  He is recommended in The Lawyer's 'Hot 100' 2023.

Mark leads RPC's Technology & Outsourcing team. He specialises in technology and outsourcing transactions, with over 25 years' experience advising a range of technology suppliers and customers, including systems development/procurement, software licensing and distribution, cloud computing and open source issues.

On the outsourcing front, Mark advises on all types of projects, including the outsourcing of IT infrastructure, AD/AM, network and data centre services, F&A, HR, FM, and other business processes.

Mark is recommended as a Leading Individual in Legal 500 UK, and is a member of the Society for Computers and Law (SCL) and the National Outsourcing Association. 

RPC is a leading commercial firm, with offices in the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore, and access to more than 21,000 lawyers in over 117 countries around the world through its relationships with leading firms in other jurisdictions.  It is recommended as being "truly expert in technology work", "the most thorough we've ever worked with - they're the best at what they do" and "providing probably the best return on investment we've ever experienced from a legal team".

RPC was awarded TMT Team of the Year by Legal Business for two consecutive years and was recently described by The Lawyer as "Big Tech's go-to UK adviser". 

David Cran (left) and Mark Crichard (right)