Digitalisation

Digital technologies continue to reshape the way we live and work.

Over the next 10 years, businesses that realise the benefits of disruptive digital technology and data will be at the core of the UK’s recovery from the impact of COVID-19 and its bid to build a post-Brexit future that is environmentally and socially sustainable. Those businesses need multi-disciplinary and commercially focused legal advisors who understand digital.

This is a pre-requisite for businesses across sectors, not just technology providers. It is fundamental to harnessing the benefits of technology to develop and continually improve new products and services, and to optimising the efficiency of operations.

How we can help

Strategic plans, corporate governance arrangements, supply chains and organisational structures must all account for the regulatory landscape as it stands today as well as the developments on the horizon. We can help businesses to understand and shape the policy response as it develops and translate the big picture developments into operational changes.

This means helping businesses to:

•  navigate existing regulatory frameworks that are struggling to keep pace with transformational change;

•  engage with policy-makers and regulators to explain the impact of legislative proposals, including UK and EU regimes established post-Brexit, and make the case for targeted and proportionate regulation; and

•  ensure that the systems designed to comply with regulation are resilient and protect consumers.

The UK2030 project is focused on using our expertise and experience to help strategic decision-makers in businesses grapple with the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in providing and using digital services, including the following:

•  Emerging technology businesses will need to establish internal governance frameworks and develop policies and procedures as they grow into sophisticated industry leaders.

•  Online platforms must be prepared for a culture change in the approach to intermediary liability, with legislation imposing strict duties in respect of user generated content on the horizon.

•  Businesses seeking to realise the potential of AI must design systems that produce fair, ethical and legally robust decision-making and take steps to protect the ownership of AI driven innovation, in the face of incoming legislation addressing issues of liability and intellectual property .

•  The largest technology companies must be prepared to share increasing business information with regulatory authorities and navigate restrictions on business activities that leverage access to data to provide new services.

Our UK2030 programme will evolve over time, offering new useful content and tools to support your decision making – please use this hub as a valuable resource and sign up to receive tailored alerts via Engage. Please select Global Market Issues.