Ken Saurajen

Partner Sydney

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Overview

Ken is a partner in Clayton Utz’s Intellectual Property and Technology group with a formidable reputation for the design and structuring of some of Australia’s and the Asia Pacific region’s most difficult and unorthodox technology, media and telecommunications transactions. His practice is characterised by creative and innovative contracting styles and the successful execution of high-stakes, landmark projects, often for which little-to-no prior precedent exists.

In 2017, Ken was recognised by Doyle's Guide as one of 3 technology lawyers in NSW considered to be pre-eminent in the field of Information Technology Law. His role has now evolved to include consulting directly to company boards in relation to large-scale technology, infrastructure and engineering projects of corporate and national significance.

Ken and his team specialise in:

complex IT and telecommunications contracting;
large scale outsourcing, business process transformation, managed services and cloud solutions;
data exploitation, licensing and commercialisation projects;
software development, licensing and support;
electronic payment systems, card services, white-labelling, payment facilitation and merchant agreements; and
digitisation, artificial intelligence, P2P solutions and emerging technologies.

Ken's expertise in technology applications and services extends across a broad range of industries, including retail, financial services, software, telecommunications, logistics, mining and construction, payments, superannuation, transport services and ports. He is particularly recognised for his work in the financial services sector on mission-critical projects such as core banking transformations, applications development and outsourcing, payments innovation and the testing and implementation of new technologies.

Notable Work

Quantum Computing: advising the NSW Government in relation to the development and commercialisation of the world's first atomically-precise 10-qubit silicon quantum computing device, through its investment and participation in Silicon Quantum Computing, an $83m quantum computing joint venture with the University of New South Wales, Telstra Corporation, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the Australian Government.
Airservices Australia: advising the Board of Airservices Australia on the OneSKY Australia program, a transformative $1.2b replacement of Australia's existing civil and military air traffic control systems with a world-leading, unified and harmonised infrastructure and technology solution that will manage over 11% of global airspace and some of the earth's busiest air routes.
Maxis Group (Malaysia): advising Maxis Group, on the ground in Kuala Lumpur, on the structuring and negotiation of innovative network sharing arrangements with U-Mobile, representing Malaysia’s first-ever active radio access network (RAN) spectrum sharing arrangement and a separate infrastructure upgrade project involving the replacement of existing traditional network elements with new generation agnostic base station technology.
Australian Taxation Office: acting for the ATO-sponsored Gateway Network Governance Body in relation to Superstream. These are landmark IT-driven superannuation industry reforms involving the implementation of a new technology framework, together with a new self-regulatory governance structure, to restructure and streamline contribution and rollover processes in Australia.
Telstra Corporation: advising Telstra on its implementation of a managed e-Health patient technology solution, combining both patient entertainment and clinical information functionality, in all public hospitals across the State of South Australia, including the acquisition of related services from a global IT services and software provider.
Axiata Group: advising Axiata, a major South-East Asian telecommunications operator, on a new closed-loop, cross-border payment scheme, enabling the transfer of value through international airtime top-ups between under-banked subscribers in different countries.
Leading investment bank: acting as trusted external counsel for a leading Australian investment bank on multiple IT projects over a number of years. This has included advising on a major core banking platform procurement from an international vendor, an associated systems integration services arrangement with a global technology company, an outsourcing of applications development, the acquisition of an enterprise-wide cloud services solution and a large sourcing project to support that bank's delivery of real-time payments (NPP).
Leading investment bank: advising the same leading Australian investment banking group on both its acquisition and later sale of one of Australia's then largest independent ATM fleet operators (and design and negotiation of associated payments and service arrangements).
'Big Four' Bank: acting for a 'Big Four' Australian bank on a range of mission-critical IT initiatives, including its electronic conveyancing project and its re-contracting and negotiation of an enterprise-wide IT and telecommunications master outsourcing agreement with a major Australian carrier.
'Big Four' Bank (#2): advising another 'Big Four' Australian bank on the design and implementation of its payment facilitation, card products and merchant arrangements.
EFTPOS: acting for EFTPOS Payments Australia in relation to the acquisition of new payments card-chip technologies in Australia from international digital security company, Gemalto.
Telecommunications
nbn Co: advising nbn Co (the National Broadband Network company) on access continuity arrangements between it and Telstra Corporation, allowing Telstra to continue to use certain copper and HFC network assets after they are transferred from Telstra to nbn as part of the ‘multi-technology mix’ (MTM) rollout model. This is part of the Australian Government’s broader NBN initiative and represents a transformative transaction in the Australian telecommunications industry.
Maxis Group (Malaysia): advising Maxis Group on multiple technology projects over a number of years, including Malaysia’s first-ever active radio access network (RAN) spectrum sharing arrangement, an upgrade project involving the replacement of existing network elements with generation agnostic technology, MVNO arrangements and a significant business transformation outsourcing with an international vendor.
SingTel Optus: advising SingTel Optus on key procurement and supply arrangements, including as seconded corporate counsel negotiating dealership arrangements and other technology contracts with banks, SingTel Optus’ technology partners, large corporate customers and other entities.
Elders Telecommunications: acting for Elders in its former joint venture with SingTel Optus (OPEL) concerning the previous Federal Government’s national broadband wireless access project.
Major retailer (confidential): acting for a major Australian retailer in relation to the procurement of a suite of telecommunications and data centre services from two large telecommunications and software services vendors.
Sydney Water Corporation: advising Australia's largest water utility on two major technology refresh programs of a scale and complexity which are highly market-significant in the IT transformation landscape, being the replacement of the utility's customer information systems and a broader enterprise resource planning project, including negotiations with international software and services vendors.
NSW Police: acting for NSW Police in relation to various IT sourcing projects, including software procurements, the fitting and stripping of fleet vehicle technology and the modernisation and upgrade of key legacy software and databases.
Hoyts Corporation: advising Hoyts on licensing strategy and device and other technology procurements associated with its rollout of digital cinema in Australia.
Ticketek: acting for Ticketek in relation to its outsourcing of call centre services and associated business processes to Salesforce and its procurement of an interactive caller voice response solution from VeCommerce.
NSW Department of Commerce: acting for the NSW Department of Commerce in relation to the negotiation with Motorola of core infrastructure, technology and services contracts for supply of the statewide government emergency services radio network for police, fire and ambulance.
SingTel Optus: advising SingTel Optus on its exclusive rights contract with the English Premier League in relation to live broadcast coverage and digital rights for broadband and mobile, its media rights contract with Cricket Australia and its sponsorship arrangements with Perth Stadium.
Australian Rugby League Commission: advising the ARLC on the sponsorship transaction and digital properties elements of its record breaking sale of media rights in Australia and New Zealand, one of the largest television deals in Australian sports history.
Nine Entertainment: advising Nine on its acquisition of Microsoft Corporation’s remaining 50% stake in long standing joint venture Mi9 and associated technology transition, historic in Australian internet industry circles.
JCDecaux: acting for JCDecaux in relation to its CityCycle project, a Paris-style public bicycle hire scheme involving the supply, installation and operation of bicycle docking stations within the City of Brisbane and surrounding metropolitan areas.
Macquarie Bank Limited: acting for Macquarie on the transition and migration aspects of its $8.2 billion purchase of ANZ's Esanda Dealer Finance Unit.
CITIC Pacific Mining: acting for CITIC’s Australian subsidiary in the negotiation of multi-sourced vendor arrangements in connection with a $5 billion Western Australian mining project, involving the management of multiple procurement workstreams relating to CITIC’s technology, logistics, construction, managed fuels supply and equipment requirements.
Gate Gourmet: advising the world's largest independent provider of domestic and international airline catering and provisioning solutions in relation to a number of strategic acquisitions, including of Performa Solutions, airline catering services provider Inflight Logistics Services and Qantas Catering's airline catering operations at Cairns and Riverside.
BlueScope Steel: acting for BlueScope Steel in relation to the renegotiation of its industrial gas supply arrangements with CoreGas to support its steel operations in Port Kembla.

Ken Saurajen

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