John is a senior corporate and commercial lawyer who has specialised in technology and intellectual property law for 30 years. He is a partner in the Corporate and Commercial team at Hall & Wilcox.
John advises clients on commercial transactions and legal disputes in the fields of IT, telecommunications and media. His expertise covers all the legal issues associated with the use of technology in business and government, including licensing, privacy and data protection, copyright, branding and e-payments.
Known for his hands-on and pragmatic approach, and his ability to find solutions to legal and commercial issues, John is a seasoned practitioner in the IT market and often acts for governments and financial institutions in relation to major IT projects.
He is widely recognised for his expertise, having been ranked in The Best Lawyers in Australia every year since 2009, being named Sydney's 'Lawyer of the Year' for Information Technology Law (2021 edition) and for Outsourcing Law (2018 edition). He is also a recommended lawyer in Doyle’s Guide to the Australian Legal Profession in their 2021 list of Leading Technology, Media and Telecommunications Lawyers, is a ranked lawyer in Chambers Asia-Pacific 2025 for TMT: Information Technology and recommended lawyer in the 2025 Legal 500 Asia Pacific Guide for IT & Telecoms.
Experience
- Advising on innovative artificial intelligence projects, including most recently for a national energy distributor, a telecommunications company and a data analytics firm.
- Acting extensively for the NSW Government on a range of information technology procurement projects, from tender preparation and evaluation to contract negotiation and the provision of associated legal opinions. Projects have included:
- the establishment of a number whole-of-government supply panels for IT solutions and services;
- the negotiation of procurement, licensing and services contracts for diverse products and services, including geospatial data, electronic signature and workflow solutions, applications development and support, data management services, network connectivity and fraud detection and analytics; and
- negotiating a large-scale software licensing transaction for Transport for NSW.
- Advising on and drafting numerous agreements for a major Australian bank, including the contracts for its panel of consultancy firms; for disaster recovery, branch outsourcing, non-cash logistics and debt recovery services; for the sponsorship of a major sporting code; and for the procurement of banking systems such as ATM software and the platforms supporting electronic transaction processing.
- Acting for a publicly listed energy generation and transmission company on various strategic IT projects, including the replacement of its corporate network, the procurement and implementation of a new ERP system, and the migration of its applications from an ‘on-premises’ environment to the cloud.
- Acting for a national payment services company on its merchant terminal solution RFP and negotiating the resulting solution supply agreement; and on its procurement of an open banking API platform.
- Advising an international e-commerce platform company entering the Australian market on the regulatory framework for accepting electronic payments and on its engagement with AfterPay.
- Negotiating numerous commercial contracts for retail industry clients, including contracts for the wholesale supply of goods, logistics services, e-commerce and online payments and website development and hosting.
- Advising a major Australian bank and Sydney Airport on their advertising services contracts with international media agencies.
- Advising Australia’s largest independent actuarial firm on intellectual property issues, including the methodologies it uses to perform data analytics and the rich data sets it owns and licenses.
- Acting for a global insurance business on its Australian privacy obligations and in relation to transactions involving the white labelling of its insurance products.
Best Lawyers in Australia
2025 | Commercial Law, Information Technology Law, Intellectual Property Law, Outsourcing Law, Privacy and Data Security Law and Telecommunications Law
2024 | Commercial Law ('Lawyer of the Year 2024'), Corporate Law, Information Technology Law, Intellectual Property Law, Outsourcing Law, Privacy and Data Security Law and Telecommunications Law
2009-2023 | Commercial Law, Corporate Law, Information Technology Law ('Lawyer of the Year 2021'), Intellectual Property Law, Outsourcing Law ('Lawyer of the Year 2018'), Privacy & Data Security Law, Telecommunications Law
The Legal 500 Asia Pacific
2025 | Data protection and IT & Telecoms
2024 | Data protection
Chambers and Partners Asia-Pacific 2020-2025
TMT: Information Technology
Business Today's 2023 Showcase
Top 10 Influential Information Technology Lawyers in Australia
Doyle's Guide to the Australian Legal Profession
2021 | Intellectual Property and Technology, Media & Telecommunications Lawyers (New South Wales)
2020 | Technology, Media & Telecommunications Lawyers (New South Wales)
- Law Society NSW
- Communications and Media Lawyers Association (CAMLA)