Bird & Bird launches new Digital Rights & Assets practice

The new group involves colleagues from the IP, Commercial, Corporate, Finance, Regulatory, Competition, Data Protection, Dispute Resolution and Tax teams. The group will develop and deliver a coherent firmwide strategy to help clients across all sectors and jurisdictions build and implement effective digital rights and assets strategies.

Digital information, data, content, currencies and online reputations are a valuable part of the asset base of many of our clients. These digital assets are often essential to the effective understanding, management, operation and growth of organisations, and at the forefront of their thinking as they look ahead to a world of interconnected devices and ultrafast connectivity. Good digital asset management is commonly a core component of compliance and positive reputation management in regulated industries. Investors, buyers and financiers are taking an increasingly keen interest in how digital assets can be leveraged, and many businesses – especially those that are strongly digital - are progressively valued on the scale and potential of their digital assets rather than purely traditional metrics.

The group’s legal and subject based expertise is relevant to all forms of digital assets including:

• business data, analytics and digital information;
• content and digital assets used in virtual, augmented and mixed reality;
• asset tokenisation, trading and digital currencies; and
• online reputation. 

The international team will assist clients with:

• the creation, management, exploitation and protection of digital rights and assets and relevant technologies, including blockchain, AI, the cloud ecosystem and digital security;
• general and sector-specific regulatory issues, national and international data, trade and competition policy;
• the prevention and resolution of disputes relating to digital rights and assets; and
• specialist corporate transactional, financing and tax services for digital asset-rich businesses.

Commenting on the launch of the new group, Bird & Bird’s CEO, David Kerr says: "The creation, management and protection of digital assets is core to a lot of our clients’ business models. Our existing capability in this area is one of our firm’s hidden gems, with leading experts all over the world, so it made sense for us to formalise it into a new group."

Partner and Head of Digital Rights and Assets, Richard McMorris comments: "Now more than ever, our clients are focusing on how to effectively implement their digital rights and assets strategies. I look forward to working with colleagues across the firm to build an offering relevant to our clients in all sectors and which can help them address the emerging complex challenges in understanding and managing their digital rights and assets."