Herbert Smith and legal trust sponsor centre to advance knowledge of IT law

Research: backers to provide 15,000 a year for pioneering university research centre.

City firm Herbert Smith and the Law Society have unveiled sponsorship of a pioneering research centre into IT law.The Centre for Law and IT will open in June at Bristol University.

It will address the legal issues created by new technologies such as the Internet, and electronic and mobile communications.It is funded by a consortium of Herbert Smith, the Law Society Trust, Barclaycard, Vodafone and Hewlett- Packard, who are each contributing 15,000 a year for several years.

They will be involved in an advisory and consultative capacity, and will meet at least once a year to evaluate research, share expertise and discuss research issues.The centre will be directed by Bristol's newly appointed senior research fellow, Andrew Charlesworth, who was previously director of the information law and technology unit at Hull University.Herbert Smith IT partner Mark Turner said that given the infant nature of IT law, academic work could be of particular benefit to practitioners.'We are delighted to be sponsoring the centre as the academic study of IT legal issues is vital for the development of electronic commerce and the digital society generally,' he said.'Both the IT industry and the legal profession need answers to a number of emerging legislative and policy issues.

This new research centre brings together lawyers, computer scientists and electronic engineers to provide thought leadership for the digital society.'He said Herbert Smith would be able to suggest research priorities, often on the back of its clients' own experiences, but it would be for Mr Charlesworth to make the decision.

All research will be publicly available.Mr Turner said the firm took the view that to provide the best possible service to its clients, 'the solicitors and partners in our IT practice need the same level of academic support in the workplace that they had access to at university'.Christopher Rees, the head of Herbert Smith's IT group, added: 'Herbert Smith wants to be the number one law firm for IT and e-commerce.

That implies leadership in both the pure and applied aspects of law.

Andrew will be a great addition to the group's armoury.'Projected areas of research include: the challenges posed by new technologies to established legal frameworks; encryption and security; intellectual property rights; and privacy and identity.Norton Rose is an existing Bristol University law faculty sponsor, putting its name to the Centre for Commercial and Banking Law.Neil Rose