Anna Cook
Partner – Commercial disputes
Anna has more than 25 years’ experience in commercial disputes, particularly disputes arising from technology contracts, including:
- leading the teams in some of the largest IT and outsourcing disputes, including two leading cases, De Beers -v- Atos Origin and Tata Consultancy Services v Disclosure and Barring Service;
- advising both vendors and customers about managing change and how to rescue a “troubled project”, including the handling of contentious issues arising from delay, payment obligations and the availability of contractual remedies;
- addressing issues and risks relating to the licensing of technology, the enforcement of software audit rights, copyright infringement, misuse of confidential information and the availability of injunctive relief and other remedies; and
- advising technology clients about risk and commercial options, how to improve difficult relationships (especially long-term contracts), how to navigate legal structures and how to achieve negotiated solutions.
Anna’s expertise includes litigation in the High Court and Court of Appeal as well as mediation, expert determination and adjudication. She also has extensive experience in international arbitration.
Anna’s recent experience includes:
- Leading the large team acting for the DBS in Tata Consultancy Services v Disclosure and Barring Service. This case was identified by The Lawyer as one of the Top 20 cases of 2023 and the judgment revolves around key issues affecting many IT projects, such as delay, limitation and exclusion clauses and other remedies.
- Acting for CityFibre in CityFibre Limited v GCI Network Solutions Limited, a dispute about the interpretation of a contract and obligations of cooperation.
- Acting for a software vendor in respect of a portfolio of cases involving breaches of its reseller agreements and instances of software infringement, including the enforcement of audit rights.
- Advising various telecoms clients in respect of disputes about infrastructure projects, contracts for the promotion of services, rights of access and wayleave agreements and the termination of contracts for the supply of goods and services.
- Acting for publishers and advertisers in respect of various adtech disputes including claims about commissions, the reliability of algorithms and Vickrey auctions, referral marketing and affiliate programs and disputes about the quality and availability of services.
- Acting for technology vendors in two international arbitrations relating to the misuse of software and the circumvention of software/technical protections, including enforcement proceedings in various jurisdictions.
- Acting for various financial institutions in respect of claims by software vendors that legacy software was being misused, including disputes about audit, the virtualisation of hardware and “direct and indirect” usage.
Anna has long-standing experience in retail, logistics, supply chains and distribution contracts, both in the context of disputes, technology projects and also to advise clients about “end-to-end” risks and commercial considerations relating to their supply chains.
Anna is a Fellow of the Society for Computers and Law, after serving as a Trustee of the SCL from July 2012 to February 2019.
Anna is a Trustee of Full Fact, a fact checking charity which counters bad information by fact checking politicians, public institutions, journalists and viral online content. She is also an active member of the International Association of Defense Counsel.