Overview

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is creating dynamic new opportunities and challenges for developers, investors and users alike. Mayer Brown is working with clients across industry sectors and geographies on a diverse range of issues emerging from the rapidly evolving global legal and regulatory environment.

Our cross-disciplinary AI team includes lawyers in our cybersecurity and data privacy, intellectual property, technology transactions, corporate, dispute resolution, regulatory, employment and other practices. We offer a holistic approach to address both our clients’ immediate legal needs while considering long-term implications and strategies.

Our areas of expertise include:

Cybersecurity and Data Privacy: Advising with respect to the full spectrum of cybersecurity and privacy considerations associated with the development and deployment of AI tools, cross-border data transfers, and data innovation and governance considerations.
Intellectual Property: Protecting AI innovations, training data, and outputs through strategic intellectual property management and enforcement.
Technology & IP Transactions: Drafting, reviewing and negotiating contracts involving AI, including data license agreements, cloud service agreements, AI systems development and integration agreements, and agreements for AI-powered products and services.
Corporate: Preparing agreements for equity investments, joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and other corporate transactions for AI companies.
Governance and Regulatory Compliance: Advising boards of directors and management teams regarding risk management strategies and navigating the complex and evolving landscape of AI regulations and standards.
Data Ethics and Fairness: Advising on ethical considerations surrounding development and use of AI technology, including fairness, transparency, accountability and bias mitigation, including with respect to employment discrimination and fair lending.

Experience

Cybersecurity and Data Privacy

Advised one of the world’s leading global technology companies to provide privacy support and respond to AI governance questions for cloud-based generative AI customer offerings.
Advised companies in various sectors, including financial, retail, business services, and others, related to use of AI in human resources operations.
Implemented policies and procedures to honor consumer rights requests related to AI and prepared appropriate policy notices for AI usage and vendor contracts related to AI service providers.
Developed and facilitated tabletop exercises on hypothetical AI incidents for a range of clients.

Intellectual Property

Counseled a major academic institution on its collaboration with multiple other parties related to the funding and operation of AI and robotics research and development centers, including drafting the commercial funding and IP agreements and advising on various complex IP and cross-licensing issues arising from the nature of the collaboration involving multiple parties.
Advised a large innovative biotechnology company in a strategic collaboration with a biologic drug discovery AI company that has proprietary synthetic biology and machine learning platforms, with the goal of identifying and predicting unique therapeutic anti-viral proteins.
Advised a leading technology company on its trade mark portfolio, with a focus on devising innovative trade mark filing strategies to protect latest emergent technologies in computer graphics, autonomous vehicles, robotics and GPU Deep Learning/AI.

Technology Transactions

Represented a national bank and credit card issuer in licensing and use of AI products and cloud services for use for core banking services and data analytics.
Acted for a leading employee benefits provider in subscribing for AI-driven tools.
Served as counsel for a leading automobile lending company in negotiating for the development, implementation and testing of AI-driven tools for rapidly responding on point-of-sale credit approval requests.
Represented numerous clients in outsourcing transactions where the service provider committed to reducing operating costs by implementing AI tools and providing related transformational services.

Corporate

Represented a leading national bank in a revolving credit facility to a software platform company supported by artificial intelligence.
Acted on behalf of a global restaurant company in the acquisition of the leading artificial intelligence-based consumer insights and marketing performance analytics business.
Served as counsel to an AI start-up on a £17 million initial public offering of 8.4 million New Common Shares and Subscription for 1.2 million New Common Shares.
Represented a leading retail automotive technology company in its investment in a robotics digitization company, enabling solutions that will improve both the consumer and dealer experience by saving time, reducing errors, and driving down costs throughout the car buying process.
Acted for a major venture capital and private equity firm in the sale of a provider of artificial intelligence systems and enterprise-scale software engineering services.
Represented an insurtech venture capital firm in its Series A investment in an insurtech data-enrichment platform provider that uses AI to predict individual risk and engagement behaviors.
Served as financial counsel for an investment fund in the acquisition by its portfolio company of a minority stake in a higher education group positioned in the fields of sustainable development and artificial intelligence.
Acted on behalf of an investment fund in its sale of a company providing fintech and data analytics through artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as its India-based subsidiary.

Governance and Regulatory Compliance

Counseled a leading global provider of technology solutions on proposed regulatory frameworks in the US and the EU and recommended preliminary compliance steps.
Prepared an AI impact assessment questionnaire for a leading global provider of technology solutions to assess and document risks relating to AI systems as well as broader compliance with proposed regulatory frameworks in the US and the EU.
Helped a major global bank to develop and deploy its AI service offerings by advising the bank on the suitability of the AI tools for use for particular purposes, counseling on appropriate contract and risk allocation terms advising on intellectual property protection with respect to AI, and providing counsel on regulatory issues associated with the use of AI by a supervised financial institution.
Developed a comprehensive AI governance framework for a global company, including building a set of principles for the use of AI as well as an assessment tool for developers of AI applications.
Advised a number of clients on the unique contractual and regulatory issues presented when companies leverage AI to provide or improve financial services.
Advised clients in various sectors on how to build and deploy bespoke AI governance frameworks for their organizations, with a focus on cross-disciplinary teams and risk mitigation techniques.
Represented insurance companies in connection with disparate impact testing of machine learning models used for various insurance purposes and advised on model governance best practices.
Counseled a leading global provider of cybersecurity solutions on proposed regulatory frameworks in the US and the EU and recommended preliminary compliance steps.
Developed harmonized AI governance policies for clients that account for domestic and global AI frameworks, guidelines, white papers, laws and major draft laws, including developing AI governance programs.

Data Ethics and Fairness

Counseled a global client on its AI and big data analytics project to categorize data sources and then utilize and monetize the insights and learnings obtained from AI supported data analytics performed on the data sets to develop new products and services.
Assisted numerous clients with developing and implementing bias testing and monitoring programs to evaluate potential fairness risks in connection with the use of models and other decisioning processes in credit, fraud, marketing, insurance and other contexts.
Represented a payment processor in connection with a wide-ranging fair decisioning project involving risk-tiering machine learning models, and performed statistical testing of high priority models for disparate impact risk in connection with fraud and credit activities.
Advised fintechs and investors on discrimination risks and mitigation strategies related to the use of alternative data in machine learning models, including use of certain macroeconomic factors.
Represented the purchaser of mortgage and student loans in assessing the fair lending risk associated with a marketplace lender's technology-driven non-traditional underwriting and pricing criteria.
Advised financial institutions, credit card issuers and marketplace lenders on a wide variety of issues (including discrimination, fairness, regulator and public relations, and compliance with adverse action notice requirements) arising from the use of alternative data in underwriting/pricing, dynamic underwriting standards, and "smart" underwriting engines.
Counseled clients regarding AI bias based on New York City employment law and other instances.

Antitrust and Competition

Represented a European company specializing in generative AI in the context of a UK Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) merger inquiry into its partnership with a global AI services provider and successfully argued that the partnership did not qualify for investigation under UK merger control rules.
Advised a European company specializing in generative AI on the Brazilian Competition Authority’s (CADE) investigation into its partnership with a global AI services provider.
Assisted a European company specializing in generative AI in the context of EU competition authorities' inquiries on generative artificial intelligence.