Liz Blythe : Russell McVeagh

Profile

Liz regularly advises on complex transactions for the procurement, supply, development, manufacturing, outsourcing and commercialisation of technology and e-commerce arrangements. This work spans traditional information technology, telecommunications and digital platforms, as well as emerging technologies such as AI, big data analytics and machine learning, IoT technology and blockchain-powered solutions.

Liz is skilled in assisting her clients in relation to compliance with legal and regulatory requirements applicable to technology, including intellectual property and privacy law.

She regularly works with companies in the technology and financial services sector, but also advises consumers of technology products and services across a wide range of industries.

Liz was recently named Young Private Practice Lawyer of the Year at the 2019 NZ Law Awards. She was named a 2020 Rising Star by NZ Lawyer Magazine and is ranked in Doyles' 2020 guide as a recommended lawyer for Telecommunications, Media & Technology.

Publications:

Experience

Technology, Intellectual Property, Privacy and e-commerce

advising Fonterra on the 2020 outsourcing of their global IT infrastructure requirements to HCL.
advising a large New Zealand entity in the travel industry on the implementation of biometric technology.
advising a large New Zealand electricity generation and retailing company on the procurement of wholesale network services from a New Zealand telecommunications company.
advising one of the world's largest global P2P platform providers on its onshoring into New Zealand.
advising a large New Zealand electricity generation company in relation to the supply of network services to corporate and wholesale customers.
advising a large New Zealand financial services software provider on the outsourcing of its IT infrastructure requirements to Datacom on an "as a service" basis.
advising a large New Zealand retailer in relation to online price aggregation activities.
advising some of the world's largest technology companies in relation to the supply of technology products and services into New Zealand.
advising a large New Zealand online retailer on the acquisition of an online shopping platform and associated intellectual property rights.
assisting a New Zealand shipping company on the procurement of infrastructure, software, logistics management and website services, including advising in connection with a pre-existing transitional arrangement.
advising one of the world’s largest advertising and marketing conglomerates, on the global procurement of group-wide application maintenance, support and development services from IBM and the creation of a framework relationship agreement centralising the end-to-end management of all existing and future services agreements between the parties.
representing a large multinational client group on the global procurement of its end user computing requirements from Lenovo, Dell and Apple resellers and group-wide global mobile requirements from Vodafone.
advising TNT, one of the world's largest express delivery companies, on the procurement of a global communications infrastructure from Verizon.
advising multiple software and e-commerce clients in relation to the establishment of their e-commerce platforms, website terms and conditions, terms of sale and privacy policies.

Financial Services and FinTech

advising an Australiasian bank in relation to a partnership with a FinTech lending platform for commercialisation in New Zealand.
advising a large Australasian bank in connection with the development of its various proprietary apps and related service offerings in compliance with New Zealand law.
advising a large New Zealand bank with respect to the procurement of an e-commerce payment solution.
representing one of the largest UK multinational banking and financial services groups on global procurement of various IT, innovation and business processing services, including consultancy, help desk, IT vendor management, end user processing, innovation lab and application development, support and maintenance services.
advising Northern Trust, a leading multinational wealth and asset manager, on the supply-back of transfer agency and fund accounting services and transitional service arrangements in connection with its acquisition of UBS' Fund Administration businesses in Switzerland and Luxembourg.
assisting Northern Trust in respect of the supply of financial middle and back office platform services (including transfer agency, fund accounting and investment operations services) to various different pension fund and financial services clients.

Procurement and Supply

advising a large New Zealand laboratory diagnostics supplier in connection with the supply of laboratory services to multiple New Zealand District Health Boards.
advising one of New Zealand's largest companies on the re-tendering of all of its engineering consultancy agreements.
advising a leading research, data and insight company on a global outsourcing of audience measurement, advertising intelligence and reputational intelligence processing.
assisting a global pharmaceutical client on the multi-sourcing of clinical trial services from various suppliers.

Credentials

LLB(Hons), BCom, University of Auckland

Professional

Liz is admitted to practise in New Zealand.

Prior to joining Russell McVeagh, Liz was a senior associate at Milbank, based in London, during which time she also attended Harvard Law School’s executive education programme. She was an associate based in Ashurst LLP's London office previously.