Nick Abrahams

Global Co-leader, Digital Transformation Practice
Norton Rose Fulbright Australia

Sydney
Australia
T:+61 2 9330 8312
Sydney
Australia
T:+61 2 9330 8312
Nick Abrahams

Nick Abrahams

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Biography

Nick Abrahams is a corporate technology lawyer based in Sydney. Nick is our global co-leader of the digital transformation practice. Nick won the 2020 Financial Times Asia Pacific Legal Innovator of the Year Award.

Nick regularly advises on tech M&A, IT procurement and data privacy/cyber-security matters. He also assists in-house counsel teams with innovation projects. Nick has deep commercial/innovation expertise and global networks in the technology space. He uses this knowledge to add value to client projects beyond the merely legal.

He is heavily involved in the technology sector as a lawyer, advisor, non-executive director, entrepreneur and investor. He has worked on over AU$3bn of TMT-related transactions globally since 2012. His group has won the Australian Technology Law Firm of the Year Award. Nick co-created the world's first AI-enabled privacy chatbot (built on IBM Watson) and co-founded Australia's leading online legal service, LawPath.

His experience in the technology & innovation field was gained from hands-on industry experience with major law firms in Australia and Tokyo and with organisations such as the ASX-listed Spike Networks Limited in Los Angeles where he was a Chief Operating Officer in the group and with Warner Brothers also in Los Angeles.

He is on the boards of: the Vodafone Foundation; the Sydney Film Festival; and, global leader in genomics, the Garvan Foundation. He was a director of ASX300 software company, Integrated Research 2014 to 2020.

Nick was a director of the Institute for Economics and Peace (2013-2018). The Institute is ranked in the top 15 Most Impactful Think Tanks in the world (with revenues < AU$5M). He is past President of the Australian Communications and Media Law Association. He was the only private practice lawyer on the Federal Government's Consultative Working Group on Cyber Safety (2011-2018). He was appointed by the NSW Finance Minister to the Government's Procurement Advisory Board (2014-2017) and was on the Committee for Sydney's Financial Services Knowledge Hub (2015-2017). He was a Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce (2012-2018).

For many years he has been named as a "Recommended Lawyer" in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications category in PLC Which Lawyer publication, has been named as a "Leading TMT Lawyer" in Asia Pacific Legal 500 and as one of Australia's best lawyers in Best Lawyers publication. Nick writes regularly on technology and future trends for The Australian Financial Review. He is the author of the Kindle Best Selling books Digital Disruption in Australia and Big Data, Big Responsibilities: A guide to privacy and data security for Australian business.

You can hear Nick's views on technology trends and the future on the Web3 goes Mainstream podcast.

Professional experience

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Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Advising Thirdera (ServiceNow Partner) on its sale to Cognizant Technologies
  • Advising global media company Labellium on acquisition of independent agency, RyanCap
  • Advising Sunstone Partners/Thirdera (ServiceNow Partner) on the acquisition of Service Line Solutions
  • Advising leading Australian e-commerce software company on its sale to large US consumer e-commerce platform
  • Advising US acquirer Simpson on purchase of Australian innovator Klevar
  • Advising fast growth Australian fintech on SAFE Note funding from large financial services company
  • Advising Braemac on sale to Berkshire Hathaway Group
  • Advising Cove Hill Partners and MyDigitalOffice on acquisition of InTouch Data
  • Advising Geronimo Web3 Agency on acquisition by US company
  • Advising Red Salt Aust on acquisition by Red Salt USA
  • Advising FujiFILM on the acquisition of IntelliMessaging
  • Advising global blockchain/NFT company on acquisition of Australian company
  • Advising education-tech company, Seertech on the acquisition of a majority stake by Quadrant Private Equity
  • Advising Visual Risk on sale to GTreasury
  • Advising on major investment by Moelis into Vault Systems
  • Advising on several rounds of capital raising by Avoka, including a $16M Series A round
  • Advising Junkee Media on a sale to oOh!media
  • Advising Flatmates.com.au on a sale to REA
  • Advising Redback Technologies on investment from EnergyAustralia
  • Advising Alberts Music on sale to BMG
  • Advising Planit (software testing) on investment from Archer Growth
  • Advising EDC (data centres) on sale to Vocus
  • Advising Plant Miner on an investment from consortium
  • Advising Netbox Blue on partial sale to BigAir
  • Advising Netbox Blue on a partial sale to Bloomberg
  • Advising Objective Corporation on acquisition of Onstream Systems
  • Advising Index Ventures on an investment into Culture Amp
  • Advising Cannon on the acquisition of Harbour IT
  • Advising Invoice2Go on the $35M investment by Accel Partners
  • Advised Technology Crossover Ventures on its $30M investment into Siteminder
  • Acted for APN News and Media in the $60M acquisition of brandsExclusive
  • Advised online dating business Oasis Active in its merger with RSVP, Fairfax Media Limited, and Ten Network Holdings Limited – value $40M
  • Acted for Connect2Field on its sale to Fleetmatics
  • Acted for Brandscreen in its $11M Series B raising from Southern Cross Ventures, Singtel and Macquarie Capital
  • 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$100M) and Aspect Education Limited group of companies (A$40M)
  • 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 $60M 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 (online payment solutions)
  • Acted for J&F Patricipaceos S.A. in connection with its $300M acquisition of the Swift Foods Group of Companies
  • Acted on acquisition of Globalstar from Vodafone

Technology

  • Acted for the Australian Communications & Media Authority in the $2 Billion digital dividend spectrum licence auction (main legal adviser to government on this project)
  • Acted for Microsoft in relation to large scale cloud computing contract negotiations
  • Acted for HP in relation to various technology procurement contracts
  • Acted for Salmat in major 5 year managed services agreement with Fujitsu
  • Advised over 35 companies and Federal Government agencies on complying with new 2014 privacy regime
  • Acted for Service NSW in relation to its establishment and agreements with numerous vendors
  • Advised on the establishment and operational legal matters for the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator
  • 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 Vodafone Hutchison Australia on several  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