Pinsent Masons appoints APAC leader for global infrastructure team

Pinsent Masons appoints APAC leader for global infrastructure team

Ian Laing has been appointed as the new global head infrastructure team at Pinsent Masons.

As a Singapore-based partner, Laing becomes the firm’s first global sector head to be based in the Asia Pacific region. He has been with the firm since 1998 and specialises in capital projects.

“Major infrastructure providers are no longer working one jurisdiction, but operating in many,” Laing said. “Further, we are seeing technology and data drive change in the sector and that's something we are uniquely well-placed to support upon. We have the global resource, and the local knowledge to understand the commercial, geographical, political, strategic, and technical, factors that impact infrastructure markets around the world."

Laing succeeds Richard Laudy who is staying with the firm to further develop its Africa practice, having guided the practice to international growth and played a pivotal role in establishing the Firm's infrastructure offerings in Australia and South Africa. 

Alternative approach needed for regulating digital economy privacy

Hogan Lovells says there needs to be an alternative approach to regulating privacy in the digital economy.

The law firm says that the ePrivacy Regulation being proposed by the EU is, to some degree incompatible with GDPR and relies on a blanket approach with some exceptions, that is “likely to lead to unwanted effects for the development of machine-to-machine communications, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.”

The firm has published a report which makes several recommendations including:

• The ePrivacy Regulation should move away from setting out narrow legal bases for the processing of specific types of data 
• The valuable risk-based approach of the GDPR should be applied to the ePrivacy framework 
• Data processing that poses no risks to individuals, particularly where data that is or is made anonymous, should be explicitly excluded from the scope of the ePrivacy Regulation

“There is clearly a need for the protection of privacy in the digital economy, but to be effective, any ePrivacy legal framework must be compatible with technological development and human progress,” said Eduardo Ustaran, Global Co-Head of the Privacy and Cybersecurity practice at Hogan Lovells. “The European Union has the opportunity to get this balance right by applying a more flexible risk-based approach which will work now and in the future.”

Linklaters strengthens Asia Pacific banking practice

Linklaters has hired a partner from DLA Piper for its Asia Pacific banking practice.

Andrew Payne will be based in Singapore with his leading practice specialising in debt restructuring and special situations, including ancillary distressed M&A/investment.

Payne has spent the last decade in Asia and prior to his time with DLA Piper he was Legal Counsel at active credit and debt fund Clearwater Capital.

“Andy’s time at Clearwater gives him a unique perspective and his experience in dealing with funds and bondholders is highly complementary to our existing practice.”