Commercial transactions—whether sales, manufacturing, outsourcing, research and development, licensing, or a wide range of other agreements involving the transfer of goods, rights, and services—are at the operational core of most businesses. K&L Gates’ Commercial Transactions and Outsourcing practice works with companies to structure, negotiate, and document their commercial transactions in order to confirm the anticipated benefits and manage the commercial risks through good contracting practices appropriate to their business models.
We assist businesses in developing efficient and effective contractual infrastructures for new and existing products and services. Our lawyers draft and negotiate a wide spectrum of contracts ranging from the routine to the highly complex. With every contract, we seek to accurately reflect the contemplated commercial transaction and to balance risk mitigation with economic opportunity.
Our lawyers have been leaders in providing legal support for outsourcing transactions for more than 35 years. We have deep experience representing both service providers and customers in a wide variety of outsourcing transactions, including some of the largest and most complex arrangements in the industry, and have worked with many of the most influential players in the outsourcing field. Our outsourcing experience encompasses many types of outsourced services, including information technology, telecommunications, human resources, finance and administration, transportation, facilities management, real estate, and procurement.
Our Outsourcing and Commercial Transaction lawyers are supported as appropriate by a tailored mix of lawyers from a variety of practice areas across our global law firm to address the individual needs of our clients. We respond to each client’s dynamic commercial endeavors by providing prompt access to individuals both in diverse fields of law, from intellectual property to employment law to construction, and in applicable geographic areas. The interdisciplinary nature of our practice provides flexibility to the client and allows us to remain price sensitive.
We are intensely committed to supporting our clients’ commercial activities—the heartbeat of the enterprise. We devote significant effort to in-house training and knowledge-sharing, including the development of model contract forms and provisions, in order to foster best practices in our firm and in our field. We believe it is good business to get to know our clients and their industries and to be of assistance not only in large-scale transactions, such as mission-critical outsourcing arrangements and strategic alliances, but also in myriad day-to-day and strategic commercial transactions, such as services contracts, purchase and supply agreements, consignments, research and development efforts, managed services arrangements, licenses, technology transfers, and joint ventures.
Our award-winning outsourcing practice team provides creative solutions for complex outsourcing transactions across a seamless global platform. We have extensive experience in outsourcing transactions involving:
Awards: Top 5 Global Legal Advisors (The Black Book of Outsourcing), Leading Outsourcing Lawyers, USA (Chambers Global Client’s Guide), Leading Outsourcing Lawyers, National (Chambers USA Client’s Guide), Leading Technology: Outsourcing Lawyers, Texas (Chambers USA Client’s Guide), Best Information Technology Lawyers (Best Lawyers in America), 500 Leading Lawyers in America (Lawdragon), Dallas Best Lawyers Information Technology Lawyer of the Year, 2012: David Guedry
Our commercial transactions practice provides sophisticated, yet practical, advice for all manner of commercial transactions. We help clients identify best practices in commercial contracting. We meet our clients’ increasing participation in the global marketplace by recognizing and addressing the additional issues presented in international commercial transactions, including issues such as export control, international dispute resolution, cross-border tax, cross-border intellectual property rights, and foreign corrupt practices counseling. We have a wide range of experience in negotiating distribution, reseller, OEM, and other traditional commercial contracts. We also structure joint venture and strategic alliance transactions in a variety of industries as strategic alternatives to mergers and acquisitions or limited buy-sell relationships.
Our information technology practice addresses the various information technology needs of our clients, including in the areas of commercial contracting, licensing, and privacy and data security. We collaborate with a number of related practice areas, such as intellectual property, export control, and tax, to provide a full spectrum of services for clients providing and purchasing information technology solutions. We also support acquisition, divestiture, and joint venture transactions involving the transfer or performance of information technology assets or services.
Our licensing practice marries extensive commercial contracting experience with a deep understanding of intellectual property rights. We have comprehensive experience with the licensing of software and other intellectual property, including the software as a service model, cloud computing, and robotics licensing. We represent companies as they license from university technology transfer offices and as they license to major corporations. We negotiate development, manufacturing, and distribution licenses for a variety of technology, including biomedical, medical devices, and other life sciences industries.