Professional Qualifications

Areas of expertise

• Company law advice and compliance
• Negotiating, drafting, reviewing and advising on all commercial agreements
• Due diligence and restructuring advice
• Advising on tendering processes and documents
• Advising on statutory bodies powers

Information Technology

• Working with clients throughout the technology and communications project lifecycle: project definition/strategy, commercial and legal structuring and tendering processes through to drafting, reviewing and negotiating contracts and resolving disputes
• Advising on all types of ICT agreements
• Drafting and advising on email disclaimers, website terms and conditions and privacy policies

Some of Graeme's major projects

• Acting for Liquigas to put in place a Facilities Code with its customers for the use of Liquigas' LPG Facilities
• Advising New Zealand Oil & Gas on:
  •  its sale of LPG from the Kupe field
  • its 2005 issue of options and its 2006/2007 rights issue to shareholders
• Advising Shell NZ on the sale of its New Zealand LPG business to BOC
• Advising the State Services Commission on its Online Authentification Project (Government Logon Service and Identity Verification Service), including negotiation of the agreement with Datacom to build and supply a system to pilot the IVS
• Acting for the Tertiary Education Commission on a range of hardware and software procurement, development, licensing and support arrangements.
• Advising on and assisting with the day to day implementation and operationalisation of EDS' $1.5 billion IT outsourcing with Telecom New Zealand, the 2002 $280 million extension and Telecom's next generation network project
• Acting for EDS on its ground breaking item image processing (cheque processing) system with New Zealand's major banks, including the 2006 extension
• Advising NCM (now Atradius), on its purchase and structuring of the EXGO trade credit insurance business from NRMA NZ and subsequent group restructuring
• Advising Zealand Dairy Board on the impact for its contractual arrangements for the deregulation of the New Zealand dairy industry, and the subsequent Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001

Seminars and publications

• 'Working in Cyberspace: Complying with the Electronic Transactions Act and the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act', at the Information Law Conference - March 2009
• 'Risks and Pitfalls of Online Government', at the GOVIS conference - May 2009
• 'The Impact of Green Policies on ICT', at the Government Contracting and Procurement Conference - August 2008
• 'Information and IT Security, Privacy and the Law', at the Information IT Security Summit - April 2008
• 'Avoiding the Legal Pitfalls in Outsourcing', at the ICT Outsourcing Summit - March 2008

Work history

Graeme's commercial work experience includes secondments with EDS, New Zealand Dairy Board and the E-government Unit of the State Services Commission.