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Nigel L. Howard

Partner

New York +1 212 841 1020

  • About
  • Representative Matters
  • Credentials
  • About

    For over 30 years Nigel Howard has specialized in technology transactions such as M&A, strategic alliances, licensing, distribution agreements and outsourcing. Clients range from start-ups and emerging companies to international corporations. He has led negotiations of billion dollar service agreements that were critical to his client, and successfully handled the intellectual property and data issues on over 250 venture capital and M&A transactions.

    Nigel is a "tremendous attorney" singled out for his detail-oriented approach, according to clients interviewed by Chambers and Partners. Peer commentators note his admirable commercial awareness, which achieves business-focused results, often in the most challenging of circumstances. He uses his extensive experience with IP and technology to advise on the commercial imperatives underlying these agreements.

    Nigel has been ranked by Chambers Global, Chambers USA, Legal 500, Best Lawyers in America, and Who’s Who in American Law. He is frequent speaker on AI, data, distribution, and technology legal issues. His past and current clients include American Airlines, the American Bankers Association, American Express, AstraZeneca, British Airways, Brown Brothers Harriman, Cathay Pacific, Cisco, CoBank, DoubleClick, Etihad, HPE, Farelogix, Iberia, Mars, Merck, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, NCR, the NFL, Novartis, P&G, Philippine Airlines, Promontory Financial, Singapore Airlines, Teva, TouchTunes, UBS, and Wyeth.

    Areas of Expertise

  • Practices and Industries
  • Representative Matters
    • HPE on technology and IP due diligence for its $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks.
    • American Airlines on a series of global ticket inventory distribution arrangements with Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport.
    • American Airlines in information technology services agreements with Amadeus, Sabre, HP, and ITA Software (Google).
    • AstraZeneca in a digital health collaboration for the development of a new medical outcomes data research and analytics system with Healthcore.
    • €2.1 billion acquisition of Antelliq Group (now Merck Animal Health Intelligence), a leader in digital animal identification, traceability and monitoring solutions, the fastest growing part of the animal health industry.
    • Merck Animal Health Intelligence on various commercial agreements, including supply, data licensing, research, and collaboration agreements, relating to its animal monitoring products.
    • An animal health company on its collaboration with a sensor provider to enable more intelligent barns.
    • Advising Ascension Health in the negotiation of a revenue cycle outsourcing agreement.
    • Represented National Grid in an innovative outsourcing transaction valued at approximately $250 million, which requires two vendors to work together and utilize agile software development in order to integrate and upgrade National Grid’s various systems, across regions over a five-year period.
    • Microsoft Corp. in the $4.5 billion winning bid in the auction of Nortel Networks Corporation’s 6000 patents and patent applications.
    • CHEP USA in an information technology outsourcing to Dell.
    • Apple Leisure Group in a series of information technology transactions, including electronic distribution agreements with hotels.

    • Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation in connection with the negotiation of a license and service agreement for an enterprise wide Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system.
    • The National Football League on its next generation data collaboration with Sportradar, a European sports data company.
    • Cathay Pacific, Philippine Airlines and Singapore Airlines in distribution agreement negotiations with Sabre in connection with the sale of the Abacus GDS to Sabre.
    • TouchTunes in a series of licensing and distribution agreements with leading mobile app developers.
    • Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in an eHealth collaboration with IBM, including a cloud services agreement for the deployment of IBM’s Watson Health Cloud as Teva’s global patient technology platform. 
    • Trymedia Systems in a series of collaborations for online distribution of games, white label web sites and digital rights management licenses with AOL, Atari, Deutsche Telecom, Disney, Electronic Arts, Nick.com, Nokia, Sony, Vivendi, and Yahoo!   
    • Endorex, Inc. in its joint venture with Elan Corporation plc to further develop and market oral and mucosal vaccine delivery technologies.
    • Conducted technology and IP due diligence on over 250 venture and M&A projects and over 50 IPOs.

    Areas of Expertise

  • Credentials
    Education
    • University of London, LL.M., 1991
        • Intellectual Property Law
        • pass with merit
    • Lancaster University, England, LL.B., 1987
        • with honors
        • Veronica Cowan prize for law
    Bar Admissions
    • New York
    • Massachusetts
    Pro Bono
    • Advised Doctors without Borders on over 100 technology and data contracts with providers.
    • Advised the Rainforest Alliance on data, technology and AI matters.
    • Advised Hello Tractor on a collaboration agreement with John Deere for a public-private partnership with the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Through the collaboration, John Deere will deploy 10,000 tractors in Nigeria over five years and the tractors will be leased out to small farmers using Hello Tractor's platform, thereby increasing mechanization access in small farming communities.
    • Represented Hello Tractor in the negotiation of an evaluation agreement with IBM for the creation of an agriculture digital wallet consisting of a blockchain-enabled and AI-based decision support platform that enables capturing, tracking, and instant sharing of data, while creating end-to-end trust and transparency for all the parties involved across the agribusiness value chain.
    • Represented SNACK, a non-profit whose mission is to fill a void in the lives of children, teens, and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other similar developmental and behavioral disabilities by providing after-school and weekend recreational programs designed and staffed to address their needs, for over 10 years.
    Accolades
    • Best Lawyers in America
    • Chambers USA
    • Chambers Global
    • Legal 500 US
    • New York Super Lawyers
    • The International Who's Who of Internet & e-Commerce Lawyers
    • The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers
    • IAM Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Professionals 
    • Who's Who Legal
    • Who’s Who in American Law
    • International Who's Who of Aviation Lawyers

    Areas of Expertise

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