Nick Abrahams
Partner
Nick is a corporate and commercial lawyer based in Sydney.
Nick is the national leader of our Australian Communications, Media & Technology Group.
His group has won the Australian Technology Law Firm of the Year Award. Nick is widely recognised for his breadth of knowledge and understanding of all aspects of technology, media and telecommunications. In addition to mergers and acquisitions work in the sector, he regularly advises on cloud computing, outsourcing, IT/IP issues, internet and telecommunications matters, media regulation, content and privacy.
His unique expertise in the TMT field was gained through hands on industry experience with both major law firms in Australia and Tokyo as well as organisations such as the ASX-listed Spike Networks Limited in Los Angeles, where he was Chief Operating Officer during 1999-2001. Prior to that Nick held an executive position with Warner Brothers in Los Angeles.
Nick is the former Chairman of our Sydney office. Nick is a past President of the Australian Communications and Media Law Association. He is the only private practice lawyer on Senator Conroy’s Consultative Working Group on Cyber Safety. He is a director of the Institute for Economics & Peace, a not for profit dedicated to researching the linkage between peace and prosperity globally. The Institute is the publisher of the Global Peace Index. He is a Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce.
He was named as a “Recommended Lawyer” in both the Outsourcing category and the Technology, Media and Telecommunications category of the 2012 PLC Which Lawyer publication. He was named as a “network deployment expert” in the 2012 Asia Pacific Legal 500 and was named one of Australia’s best media lawyers in the 2012 Best Lawyers publication. He was recently named one of Australia's "Leading Technology, Media & Telecommunications Lawyers" by Australasian Legal Business magazine.
Nick writes an occasional column on Technology for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers. As a result of this column, Nick maintains a list of recent TMT M&A Transactions in Australia.
Selected client work
Mergers and Acquisitions
- Acted for APN News and Media in the $60M acquisition of brandsExclusive
- Acted for the Ten Network in the joint venture with zeebox
- Acted for 5th Finger in its sale to Merkle
- Acted for IPMG in the sale of Viva9 to Digital Perfornance Group
- Acted for Riverside Partners in the acquisition of ITC Global
- Acted for ITC Global in the acquisition of Spidersat
- Acted for Infosys Technologies Limited in relation to its acquisition of Gen-i's Software Solutions business
- Acted for Kaplan Inc. (education) in relation to acquisition of Study Group International group of companies (A$100 million) and Aspect Education Limited group of companies (A$40 million)
- Acted for New York Stock Exchange Euronext on its acquisition of Metabit
- Acted for Dealised in its investment from Singtel Innov8 and Yuuwa Capital
- Acted for shareholders of Spreets.com.au on its sale to Yahoo!7
- Acted for Vodafone Global in connection with its acquisition of Quickcomm Pty Ltd
- Acted for BMG Music in its acquisition of Chrysalis Music
- Acted for Pivotel Group in connection with its acquisition of retail and wholesale mobile telephone business from Digital Performance Group Limited (Comtel)
- Advising Downer EDI in the acquisition of the WA-based mining services business Western Construction. Western Construction had an annual turnover of $60 million from its services to the oil and gas, mining and heavy industrial sectors.
- Acted for Intel Capital in its investment into Aurema Pty Limited
- Acted for The Payment Company Ltd in connection with the acquisition of shares in Dialect Payment Technologies Pty Ltd (on-line payment solutions)
- Acted for J&F Patricipaceos S.A. in connection with its $300million acquisition of the Swift Foods Group of Companie
- Acted on acquisition of Globalstar from Vodafone
Technology
- Acted for rail freight and ports operator Asciano on moving its entire ICT infrastructure to Fujitsu’s cloud
- Main adviser for two global software companies on their cloud agreements and negotiations
- Acted for major telecommunications company on over 20 significant technology procurements
- Acted for Sensis on their move to a social media/digital strategy
- Acted for Telstra on over 80 contractual matters
- Acted on numerous matters opposite NBN, including advising on the Wholesale Broadband Access contract development process and facilities access
- Acted for Monster.com on joint venture between Monster.com with CareerOne
- Acted for major Australian bank on various significant outsourcing matters
- Acted for numerous NSW government departments on a significant technology-related matters matter
- Acted for Federal government agency on major outsourcing project
- Acted for Australian bank on core software system replacement
- Acted for numerous energy companies on telecommunications matters, including sale and acquisition of network assets
- Acted for major media company on numerous matters involving moving the business online over a period of years
- Acted for Kennedy Miller Mitchell in joint venture with Omnilab to create digital content studio
Speaking engagements
Speeches/Presentations 2012 | Date | Seminar / conference / article / presentation | Topic |
| 11 October | AICC Private Boardroom Lunch with Roger Corbett AO, Chairman, Fairfax Media | Nick introducing Roger Corbett, and hosting the lunch |
| 10 October | Deloitte Board Lunch | Overview of recent TMT transactions; and the 7 major sticking points in TMT M&A negotiations |
| 9 October | Comms Day 2012 | The Impact of the Convergence Review |
| 12 September | Cyber Security Law Australia 2012 Conference | Legal Risks of Cloud Computing |
| 30 August | AmCham | AmCham Business Briefing: Hosting HON. GREG PEARCE MLC Minister for Finance and Services |
| 30 August | Legalwise Seminar: Cloud Computing: Security, Privacy & Confidentiality | Risks in Cloud Computing |
| 29 August | Presentation to client | Presentation to NSW Police (Nick Abrahams & Larry Noble) - "Procure IT" |
| 22 August | Presentation to client | Privacy Cloud, Patriot Act |
| 8 August | Cloud & NBN Forum | Cloud / NBN Forum |
| 19 July | Presentation to client | Cloud Computing |
| 18 July | Presentation to client | Global Best Practice in Technology Procurement & Introduction to Alliance Contracting in Technology |
| 4 July | Norton Rose Client Seminar | The Impact of Convergence Review |
| 28 June | Norton Rose Client Seminar | Raising Money, Granting Options and Buying/Selling: Legal Issues for TMT Companies |
| 25 June | Australian Risk & Compliance Summit | Privacy |
| 21 June | Presentation to client | The Impact of the Convergence Review |
| 14 June | Norton Rose Client Seminar | Global Best Practice in Technology Procurement |
| 13 June | 2012 Cybersafety Summit | Convergence Review |
| 6 June | Presentation to client | Cloud Computing – Legal Issues |
| 23 May | Presentation to client | Convergence |
| 17 May | AMCHAM – The American Chamber of Commerce in Aust. | Hosting Rod Sims, Aust Competition & Consumer Commission |
| 16 May | AusCert Information Security Conference | Risks in Cloud Computing |
| 10 May | Norton Rose Client Seminar | The Impact of the Convergence Review |
| 17 April | Presentation to client | "The legal risks for your online portal from cyber crime" |
| 17 April | CommsDay | Recent deals in TMT sector |
| 29 March | Norton Rose Client Seminar | Cloud Computing - the hype, the opportunities and the risks |
| 21 March | Presentation to client | Global Best Practice in Tech Procurement |
| 15 March | Speaking on Panel Today - (Lexis Nexis Global LN Leadership Summit 13-15 March) | SPEAKING ON PANEL TODAY - (Lexis Nexis Global LN Leadership Summit 13-15 March) |
| 7 March | Dubai Tech/Outsourcing Seminar | Tech/Outsourcing Seminar on Australia |
| 7 March | Seminar in Dubai | Technology - at Dubai Tech/Outsourcing Meeting |
| 6 March | SOPAC 2012 Conference | Privacy – How far can you delve? |
| 6 March | Advertising, Marketing & Media Law Update Seminar | Advertising, Marketing & Media Law Update Seminar - New forms of Direct Marketing - Issues under the Spam, Do Not Call Register, Privacy and Surveillance regulations |
| 22 Feb | AmCham | Briefing with Cybersecurity Experts |
| 20 Feb | Presentation to client | IT Contracting |
| 16 Feb | Presentation to client | IT Issues |
| 16 Feb | Presentation to client | APRA and Cloud Computing, Data Export and the Patriot Act |
| 6 Feb | Presentation to client | Global Best Practice in Tech Procurement |
| 6 Feb | Presentation to client | US gets serious on copyright: Megaupload, O’Dwyer Extradition & SOPA |
| 3 Feb | Presentation to client | Global Sourcing |
| 1 Feb | Presentation – Internal | The Impact of the PPSA on Technology Transactions - Presenters: Nick Abrahams and Warwick Andersen |
Speeches/Presentations 2011
Date | Seminar/conference/article/presentation | Topic |
| 27 Jan | Presentation to client | Data Centre Strategies |
| 22 Feb | Seminar at Norton Rose for clients | Developments in Spam, Do Not Call and Privacy Laws which may cause Risks for your Business |
| 24 Feb | Presentation to client | Advertising & Marketing Law Update |
| 3 March | Seminar at Norton Rose for clients | Tech Law Update |
| 3 March | Presentation to client | Technology Contracting |
| 9 March | Presentation to client | Legal Issues in Mobile Applications |
| 11 March | CLE Master Class | Technology Contracting |
| 15 March | UNSW Contract Law Update | Nick Chairing – UNSW Contract Law Update |
| 23 March | Presentation to client | How to work with Social Media Operators |
| 4 April | Presentation to client | Reselling NBN – the framework and the issues CLE |
| 6 April | Unisys 2011 presentation | Cloud Computing |
| 7 April | Seminar at Norton Rose for clients | NSW Procure IT Contracts |
| 14 April | Presentation to client | Outsourcing |
| 23 May | Presentation to client | M&A in TMT |
| 21 June | Presentation to client | Telecommunications Regulation Update |
| 23 June | Internal | CLE on NBN |
| 20 July | BlackBerry PlayBook launch | Panel |
| 28 July | 7th Annual Public Sector In-House Counsel Conference | Global Best Practice in Procurement |
| 5 August | Nick speaking at E&P Partner Meeting | Nick speaking at E&P Partner Meeting |
| 10 August | Presentation to client | Risk Manager Presentation |
| 24 August | Presentation to client | M&A in TMT |
| 25 August | Presentation to client | M&A in TMT |
| 1 Sept | Presentation to client | M&A in TMT |
| 5 Sept | Presentation to client | Legal Implications of Machine to Machine Computing |
| 22 Sept | Australian Venture Capital Association
Annual Conference | Presentation: the evolving VC Industry – seismic shifts in the landscape |
| 26 Sept | Presentation to client | Telstra M&A in Asia |
| 29 Sept | Presentation to client | NBN and Regulation |
| 4 Oct | Norton Rose Internal | "Update on Communications, Media and Technology Law issues" |
| 5 Oct | Presentation to client | Technology Procurement Issues |
| 6 Oct | Presentation to client | M&A in TMT |
| 12 Oct | CommsDay Melbourne Conference | Machine2Machine Risks and Opportunities |
| 25 Oct | Presentation to client | Telco Regulatory Update |
| 27 Oct | Presentation to client | Telecommunications Regulation |
| 27 Oct | Presentation to client | RiskManager Presentation |
| 27 Oct | Seminar at Norton Rose for clients | Outlook and Opportunities in the Australian Technology, Media and Telecommunications Sectors |
| 5 Dec | Presentation to client | Life satisfaction for lawyers |
| 8 Dec | Presentation to client | 2011: A telecommunications Odyssey |
| 13 Dec | Presentation to client | Global Best Practice in Sourcing |