Alex Kirkhope

Practice Areas

Alex is a Partner in the Commercial team with a particular focus on Technology and outsourcing, advising clients on all aspects of their business-critical IT systems and related business functions, as well as wider technology-based commercial contracts, software licensing and information law.

Alex works closely with client commercial and legal teams in delivering transactions and has a detailed understanding of the key commercial drivers behind technology deployments. Over his career, Alex has advised on numerous major public sector IT contracts and procurements for UK Government, in particular in relation to the development, implementation and delivery of nationally significant benefits systems, a £1bn BPO of administrative and payment systems underpinning the NHS in England, and the largest UK police force on its outsourcing of Application Maintenance and Support Services.

Recent examples of transactions Alex has advised on include:

•advising a luxury high street retailer on its £multi-million O365 Transition Framework negotiations with IBM;

•advising a global automotive manufacturer on multiple contracts related to their IT environment and supply contracts, including in relation to their international enterprise-wide licensing arrangements with Microsoft;

•acting for a high-growth financial services technology provider on the contract terms underpinning the rollout of its mortgage aggregation software platform to corporates, brokers and intermediaries;

•advising a leading Smart Cities technology provider in relation to a number of significant smart city technology deployment projects;

•leading a team advising a major UK Building Society in relation to the second generation outsourcing of its savings and mortgage account software platform;

•advising another leading UK Building Society in relation to contracts covering multiple aspects of its IT systems and infrastructure including the negotiation of terms relating to a high-value cloud service deployment, as well as a range of other business-critical IT agreements;

•acting for a major UK construction company in relation to its procurement of WAN services to support its UK and international operations; and

•acting for a global airline group in relation to the negotiation of enterprise-wide software licensing arrangements with Oracle.

Alex joined Shoosmiths as a Partner in May 2017 having spent 14 years at DLA Piper