IT, EDP, e-commerce, data protection, telecommunications & more
The specialist lawyer for information technology law (IT law) must not shy away from technology. A high degree of technical understanding is combined with the application of laws that were often not enacted with technical issues in mind. Some of the regulations date back to the 19th century.
A particularly practically relevant area of activity is the support of online stores and the drafting of contracts. In this area, clients rightly expect a lawyer who also understands how IT processes work and what options are available for structuring them.
Online stores in particular should not skimp on preventive legal advice. The e-commerce provider's offer can be accessed and documented not only by customers, but also by competitors at any time. Legislation makes it extremely difficult to comply with the complicated web of rules and information obligations.
The best-known issue is the customer's special right of withdrawal, including the associated withdrawal policy, which has to be amended from time to time as case law or legislation develops new requirements. Errors in the design of an online store can quickly become expensive due to warnings from competitors or competition associations, especially if they are represented by lawyers.
As a specialist lawyer for IT law, we are always amazed at the practice of investing large sums in individual software projects without concluding an appropriate contract. The contracts are often blanket and meaningless.
Especially if the process discussed at the beginning of the project is not reflected in the contractual rules, problems are "pre-programmed". Unlike a machine, software is initially something abstract that can rarely be used in the same way as it is offered "off the shelf". The effort required to adapt business software to individual circumstances is often high. It is well known that manyIT projects fail. The contracts are often drawn up by technicians rather than specialist lawyers and are copied together from various previous projects. The contractual terms are therefore often not on the same level when the importance of IT for the business is taken into account. With the right legal contract support, frequently occurring problems in IT projects can usually be avoided from the outset or at least a "what if" solution can be found.
Of course, we not only provide support during this process, but also when the problems have already arisen.
A survey by the State Commissioner for Data Protection in Rhineland-Palatinate confirms this: Many companies still do not pay enough attention to companydata protection. Although data protection violations are usually committed out of ignorance, they can still have serious consequences: for example, there is not only the threat of high fines but also a loss of trust among customers.
This is often triggered by complaints from former employees or consumers. As specialist lawyers in the field of IT, we will of course support you in such cases, but we always recommend that you seek legal advice in advance, as even the obligations to appoint data protection officers are often disregarded. Another regular area of advice from a specialist lawyer in the field ofdata protection is regulations on commissioned data processing and the drafting of the necessary data protection declaration on the website operated by the company.
Brief introduction of the specialist lawyer for information technology law as a video
"TOP LAW FIRM TEAM FOR THE AREA OF IT LAW"
this is how Wirtschaftswoche described us in its annual publication in 2018, together with 46 other leading law firms in this field.
In the first round, Wirtchaftswoche initially identified 538 IT legal experts from 74 law firms by the Handelsblatt Research Institute under Professor Bert Rürup. Then, in the second round, a peer group survey was conducted among these experts, of which over 80 lawyers took part. Self-assessments were excluded. This resulted in a list of 105 lawyers from 50 law firms, which was presented to the jury in the third stage. This time, the jurors were corporate lawyers Jan Eckert from ZF Friedrichshafen, Philipp Haas from Robert Bosch, Isolde Würz from Thyssenkrupp, Claas Westermann from RWE and, for the academic side, Achim Schunder as head of the journal branch of C.H.Beck.