A Protocol for Conducting Technology Contract Negotiations

In this episode of The Technology Law Podcast, we’ll cover the key documents that attorneys should review in connection with inbound cloud services agreement (i.e., your client is buying cloud services).  We’ll cover: Non-disclosure Agreements (NDA’s) Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) Data Processing Addendum (DPA's) Privacy Policy SOC-2 Certificate Of Insurance MSA (Master Services Agreements)/Terms of Service Order Form Business Continuity Plans for critical vendors

Hello and welcome to The Technology Law Podcast, I’m your host, Jay Ward. This podcast is dedicated to the practice of drafting and negotiating technology transactions: cloud services deals, software development and licensing agreements, hardware transactions. I’m a technology lawyer with my own practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. I specialize in helping buyers and sellers of technology services and products execute their deals faster and more efficiently. I got my start as a technology lawyer with Reed Smith where I was a member of the Venture Capital and Technology Law Practice Group. I’m a former Oracle and Google Cloud attorney and you can learn more about me and my practice at www.jaywardlaw.com. On today’s show, we’re going to take a look at Data Processing Addendums. I’m going to chat with Todd Slack, Senior Corporate Counsel for Data Protection at Splunk, a leading Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence technology vendor. Data Processing Addendums – or DPA’s – have been a part of the portfolio of documents and policies needed to implement cloud services deals for several years now. Originally, you only tended to see them in large enterprise deals, say between a large financial institution and Microsoft. But now with more companies looking to comply with the GDPR and the CCPA (the CA consumer privacy act) even mid-tier and small cloud vendors need to implement DPA’s in order to secure business from larger customers. I hope you’ll enjoy my discussion with Todd.

The 2020 Iowa Democratic Caucus Fiasco: A Failure of Technology Contracting Former Razorfish and Huge software development expert, Chris Stetson, and technology law attorney, Jay Ward, do a “failure analysis” of the 2020 Iowa Democratic Primary controversy, focusing on the failure of an app developed by Shadow Inc. to accurately report the caucus results.  What lessons can be learned for buyers of enterprise software?

According to Statista, the size of the  global communications and computer equipment industry is in excess of $671 billion US dollars.  While the purchase of technology services and intellectual property transactions tends to get a lot of attention, the purchase of technology products deserves equal focus.  On this episode of the podcast, I'll interview Chris Nixon, a senior product procurement executive with Peet's Coffee and Tea and discuss the nuances of buying technology products. Feel free to reach out to me with questions and comments at www.jaywardlaw.com.

In this second episode of The Technology Transactions Podcast, technology transactions attorney Jay Ward discusses the mechanics of how technology contracts should be negotiated.  Redlining, agendas, technology tools and negotiation protocols and tactics are discussed.

In this first episode of The Technology Law Podcast, I’ll share my approach to reviewing technology agreements. I think it’s a great framework for kicking off a technology contract review project and helps to get deals done more efficiently. 

This is the pilot episode of The Technology Law Podcast, with host Jay Ward.  The podcast focuses on the law of and best practices related to enterprise technology transactions.  We'll be analyzing and discussing cloud services agreements, software development agreements, professional services and consulting agreements.  We'll also tackle specific subjects such as service levels, warranties, indemnification, limitation on liability and termination for convenience provisions.  You can learn more about Jay and his practice at www.jaywardlaw.com.