HFW expands with team from Mayer Brown co-op

HFW has expanded its presence in Latin America with a new cooperation agreement with a team from a global rival’s cooperation firm.

The team was previously the insurance team of Tauil & Chequer Advogados in cooperation with Mayer Brown (TCMB).

The group includes a partner and six fee earners and will operate as newly established local firm CAL which will begin operating from offices in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo (subject to regulatory approval).

HFW and CAL have entered into a cooperation agreement and HFW partner Fernando Albino and other local colleagues will join CAL.

In addition, HFW has hired former TCMB partner Julio Costa as a partner. Costa is widely regarded as Brazil's leading aviation lawyer. He will work closely with HFW insurance and reinsurance partner Geoffrey Conlin.

"As part of our strategy to be the world's leading law firm to the aerospace, commodities, construction, energy, insurance and shipping industries, we have been investing heavily in the international markets that are most important to those six sectors. Brazil is the world's eighth-largest economy and a key centre for many of our clients,” explained HFW global senior partner Richard Crump.

NRF deploys Australian chatbot creation in Canada
Norton Rose Fulbright clients in Canada will talk to an artificial intelligence ‘chatbot’ to determine if they need to report a data breach.

‘Parker’ was originally created in Australia by the firm’s global head of technology Nick Abrahams and Sydney-based technology associate Edward Odendaal.

Using natural language and style it guides users through a conversation to ascertain what action should be taken.

It was deployed in Australia in December major change in the Australian data protection notification regime that came into effect earlier this year and within 24 hours of launch more than 1,000 conversations took place.

Now NRF is launching a new version of the chatbot in Canada where new privacy laws come into effect later this year. It has been developed by the local team and runs on the IBM Watson Cloud platform.

Apple fined for “bricking” in Aussie court
Apple has been fined AU$9 million by the ACCC following an investigation into breaches of Australian consumer law.

The US tech giant was accused of using software updates to render devices unusable if devices had been serviced by non-Apple authorised repairers.

The practice, known as “bricking” as it essentially turns devices into bricks, was applied to 275 consumers in Australia.

Having a device repaired by a non-authorised repairer should not invalidate a guarantee the ACCC said.