CMS has boosted its tech transactions bench in London with the hire of Osborne Clarke’s international AI chief.
John Buyers will join CMS’s technology, media, IP and competition (TMIC) practice early next month as a partner.
He brings more than 30 years’ experience in IT law advising on large-scale technology transactions, including managed services, outsourcing, technology procurement, digitalisation, SaaS and software integrations.
His practice focuses on digital transformation and digital regulation, with a particular emphasis on AI and machine learning.
Dóra Petrányi, who took over as head of the TMIC practice in April, said Buyers brought “relationships with some of the world’s most innovative technology companies and a strong understanding of the complex regulatory landscape in which they operate”.
Petrányi added: “As AI continues to reshape every sector, clients need advisers who combine technical excellence with practical guidance. John will strengthen CMS’s ability to help businesses navigate the legal implications of this technology, manage risk and unlock opportunity.”
Buyers spent 13 years at Osborne Clarke, where he also led the commercial team for a number of years and worked on transaction and advisory matters with Microsoft and other global technology companies.
Earlier, he was a partner at Stephenson Harwood and worked in-house at Cap Gemini, among other roles.
His hire follows CMS boosting its crypto and digital assets team last month with the hire of partner Katherine Murray in London from specialist legal and compliance firm Avantia Law.
In May, the firm also recruited Sarah Green, one of the UK’s leading authorities on crypto, digital assets and the digitalisation of legal infrastructure, as a consultant.
Buyers’ move also comes as law firms beef up their tech transactions offerings in London. Latham & Watkins hired Travers Smith partner Richard Offord, who advises on the commercial, IP and tech aspects of M&A and private equity transactions, in June, just weeks after it added a trio of tech-focused M&A partners from Morrison Foerster led by the firm’s former London managing partner, Andrew Boyd.
Around the same time, Morrison Foerster hired a tech transactions and TMT M&A trio from Morgan Lewis and Baker McKenzie in London.
John Buyers is editor of the Global Legal Post's Artificial Intelligence comparative guide.
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