The recent surge of technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) has revolutionised the world.

However, the hype surrounding these topics makes it easy to lose sight of how they have forever changed Australia’s business landscape and the role of legal practitioners.

Lawyers in this practice area are now covering more matters than ever before.

Their work includes everything from major deals between telecommunications companies, to contract negotiations on airing rights for TV programs and sports, to government regulation in relation to media share.

Whatever issue they cover, they know that even their traditional clients will have to respond to new tech challenges, with only businesses that have adaptable lawyers likely to thrive.

Bigger, faster, stronger

The evolution of TMT has created plenty of work in novel areas of law, such as helping companies establish new footprints or entities, handling disputes between providers, and establishing frameworks so new players can operate legally.

But getting to this point has not been easy. Many TMT lawyers have had to overcome setbacks as the space develops over time.

“The major issue facing lawyers in my practice, and more so than any other area, is the rate of change we’re seeing in the industry,” says Paul Kallenbach, partner at MinterEllison.

“If you think about the last year r two, we’ve seen greater emphasis on the cloud, the emergence of blockchain, agile contracting, significant pricing changes and the maturing of social media, so lawyers in my area constantly have to be on top of what is a rapidly moving subject area.”

Allens partner Gavin Smith agrees, but notes that while technology, media and telecommunications are usually placed under the same umbrella, they are each unique in their own right and pose their own challenges.

Mr Smith says the biggest issue affecting lawyers operating in the media is constant reform.

“What I’m particularly talking about is the reforms to ownership rules in the media industry, particularly in relation to regional media players,” he says.

“Television rights just keep getting bigger and bigger, particularly in the sports field, and that is something that, in the last couple of years, has kept quite a few practitioners very busy.”

Consolidation has been the biggest factor affecting telecommunications lawyers, explains Mr Smith.

“All of the internet service providers have been voraciously consolidating over the past couple of years … that’s been keeping telecommunications lawyers very busy,” he says.

“The other big thing in the telecommunications space has been the mandatory data retention laws which came into force last year. It’s quite intrusive government regulation and government access to data – quite controversial.”

The need for speed

As technology continues to go from strength to strength, TMT lawyers need to be hot on its heels.

According to Gilbert + Tobin partner Sheila McGregor, clients in this practice area are no longer looking for a decade-long deal; they’re after an effective, quick fix, especially as “the next big thing” could be just around the corner.

“We’re moving away from those large and slow contract type of transactions to smaller transactions which have shorter terms and more built-in flexibility, so our clients can move quickly from one provider or one kind of technology to another, without having to go through long notice periods,” she says.

“Every six months you look around and there’s a new technology that’s cheaper, better and quicker, so if a client has signed up to a three-year deal and this new [technology or provider] comes out, they want to be able to switch [easily].”

Ms McGregor says this ties into the need for lawyers to quickly and continually up-skill themselves in government regulation.

“Another key issue with the evolution of the practice is [that] lawyers have had to learn new ways of looking at risk and considering risk for clients,” she says.

“For example, if clients want to move to a public cloud offering, their lawyers need to really understand the chain of service provision that you’re going to get from that cloud provider, because there are privacy issues and security risks which need to be understood really well.”

Specialty sectors

Today’s TMT lawyers offer expertise to a wide range of clients – big and small, local and foreign, traditional and modern.

For Mr Smith, it’s all about targeting start-ups and high-growth companies.

“We actually launched the Allens Accelerate practice for start-ups and high-growth companies at the start of 2015,” he says.

“The idea is to support them on a journey from being relatively small and in a high-growth stage, through to something much more substantial. Think of it as if we’re growing and helping [the businesses] of the future.”

However, Mr Smith also services traditional companies that are looking to break into the tech space.

“Pretty much [all companies] – even the old-fashioned – are tech-enabled now. They rely on technology to do their work, so that means we, over the last few years, have very much been in growth mode and continue to be in growth mode,” he says.

Meanwhile, Ms McGregor says the most activity in this practice area comes from “any client that has a large customer base … whether it’s a large or small bank, an airline like Qantas, a retailer like Wesfarmers [or] a logistics company”.

“Particularly with all the data analytics that are around, we’re focusing on those clients who have large customer bases.”

Keeping ahead

While there is an abundance of companies requiring legal assistance in TMT, competition remains rife between firms.

“I think it’s like any area of law,” Mr Kallenbach says.

“There are a lot of firms that do this work, so it’s competitive, but there’s also an increasing amount of work out there.”

Meanwhile, Mr Smith says competition is particularly high for major clients in this space.

“A lot of firms will pitch to work for the big clients,” he says.

“Firms [are] very hungry to try and win some major ASX corporates and banks, for example.”

To stay ahead of the competition, Ms McGregor says Gilbert + Tobin regularly invests in its TMT lawyers.

“We’ll send partners to the US and UK to find out best practice in cloud contracting or best practice in cloud risk analysis,” she explains.

This, she says, delivers insights into the big trends likely to hit Australia, and how the firm can best position itself for major clients.

Heightened demand

The emergence of more clients in the TMT space is enhancing the need for lawyers who specialise in this area.

“The growth of the sector naturally means there’s a demand for TMT lawyers,” says Mr Smith.

“There [are] quite a lot of in-house roles [available] … All firms are constantly trying to hire TMT lawyers.”

Ms McGregor echoes this sentiment, saying the demand for lawyers in this practice area is huge.

“Our lawyers are getting calls from head-hunters, as are our partners, to go and work somewhere else, because it’s an area where most corporates need a specialist,” she says.

“I think there’s a lot of demand because it’s a new area and everybody is doing something. There’s a lot of attention from boards and senior management about how they respond to these challenges, and they’re looking to get internal and external teams to help guide them through some of these issues.”

“I think there’s more demand than ever,” agrees Mr Kallenbach.

“I imagine that there will be even more lawyers looking to come into this space, given the digital generation and people becoming a lot more comfortable with technology as it forms part of their everyday life.”