Acting for domestic and international clients alike, the growing outsourcing team at McDermott Will & Emery LLP counts service providers as well as domestic and international buy-side corporations amongst its key roster of clients. The firm handles sophisticated outsourcing projects involving AI technology and blockchain-powered projects, and has illustrated niche expertise in advising healthcare providers on revenue cycle management outsourcings. The team is jointly led by Shawn Helms, who has a strategic focus on complex ITO, BPO, and cloud computing arrangements, and Jason Krieser, who is a key contact for tech development, SaaS, and licensing matters. Industry veteran David Guedry has a depth of experience in managing complex IT outsourcing agreements for leading tech providers, while Heather Bethancourt assists healthcare providers with a wide range of transactions. Caitlin Howe’s scope of work includes cloud computing, e-commerce arrangements and service agreements, while Raja Chatterjee focuses on domestic and cross-border commercial transactions. The department is further strengthened by the recent arrival of Los Angeles-based Matthew King, who frequently negotiates IP and IT transition services agreements, from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Unless otherwise stated, all individuals are based in Dallas.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

'McDermott Will & Emery LLP has an exceptional team. They are experts in their field and are highly available. They are very business minded.'
'They are exceptionally competent. They care about our business and delivering successful outcomes for us. They always treat us more than fairly, and we have built great personal relationships as well. We would recommend Shawn Helms, Caitlin Howe, and Heather Bethancourt.'

Key clients

Amadeus
Caterpillar
Cognizant
Duke University
Hertz
Johnson & Johnson
Marriott
Meta
United Services Automobile Association
Valley Health

Work highlights

Acted for Marriott International on a series of outsourcing transactions that will oversee the replacement of Marriott’s internal reservations system and property management systems to vendors such as Amadeus and Agilsys.
Advised Shutterstock on forming a partnership with OpenAI.
Advised Gulf States Toyota on an outsourcing transaction, which entails Kyndryl taking over Gulf States Toyota’s extensive data center services operation.

Lawyers

Hall of fame

The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.

David Guedry

Work highlightsMcDermott Will & Emery LLP

David Guedry is nationally recognized for more than 25 years of leadership advising global service providers and Fortune 1000 companies on complex sourcing relationships, including assisting with developing legal, operational and business strategies, and translating strategy into the practical negotiation and documentation of deals. David’s experience includes managing the complexities of information technology (IT) and telecommunication outsourcing agreements, business process outsourcing arrangements (with an emphasis on HR and finance and accounting (F&A) outsourcing), distribution relationships, licensing arrangements, and joint ventures, strategic alliances and teaming relationship. He also assists clients in turning unprofitable, troubled relationships into profitable, referable accounts by guiding the client through the process of identifying, developing and successfully implementing turnaround solutions. Please visit McDermott website for full biography: https://www.mwe.com/people/guedry-david/

Leading partners

The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.

Jason Krieser

McDermott Will & Emery LLP

Jason Krieser is the co-head of the Firm’s Technology & Outsourcing Practice, and the office managing partner for Dallas. He advises clients on all aspects of technology transactions, outsourcing matters, telecommunications and other complex commercial contracts, including artificial intelligence, (AI), digital health, telecommunications and robotic process automation arrangements. He is an internationally recognized advisor on outsourcing matters, including information technology (IT), business process (finance and accounting, human resources, logistics and facilities management) and offshore issues. He also handles technology development and licensing matters, joint ventures, strategic alliances, manufacturing agreements, key supply and distribution agreements, enterprise blockchain applications, other complex service agreements, Internet of Things (IoT) and e-commerce matters. Jason also regularly works on digital health matters, data licensing and strategy issues and mobile applications. He has handled cloud-computing transactions for the past 20 years, including software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) transactions. Jason is the co-author of a legal treatise on outsourcing law titled Outsourcing: Law and Business published by Law Journal Press (the treatise publishing arm of American Lawyer Media). This treatise gives detailed treatment to all material legal and business issues associated with outsourcing transactions. The form of master outsourcing services agreement developed by Jason and his co-author, and featured in the treatise, is publicly available and widely used in the outsourcing industry. For more information, see www.outsourcingmsa.com. Jason is also the co-author of a Bloomberg BNA portfolio titled “Technology and Outsourcing”.

Shawn Helms

McDermott Will & Emery LLP

Shawn C. Helms is co-head of the Firm’s Technology Transactions & Outsourcing Practice. Shawn has broad experience in the areas of information technology, outsourcing, blockchain, crypto, artificial intelligence (AI), digital health and telecommunications. He focuses his practice on complex transactions involving technology and intellectual property, including information technology outsourcing (ITO), business process outsourcing (BPO), licensing, cloud computing arrangements (IaaS, SaaS and PaaS), technology maintenance and services, technology development/customization (including iPhone and Android), wireless infrastructure, AI, generative AI (such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion), social media issues, strategic alliances, e-commerce, internet of things (IoT), confidentiality, strategic sourcing and data security/privacy. Shawn has considerable experience in blockchain and cryptocurrency matters including NFTs, DAOs and enterprise blockchain applications. Shawn regularly works on the transactional aspects of cryptocurrency bankruptcy and liquidation matters. Shawn also regularly works on digital health matters involving wearables, data licensing and strategy issues, AI and mobile applications. He also advises clients on IT and IP diligence, transition services agreements (TSAs) and other technology and intellectual property matters relating to the acquisition or divestiture of businesses. Shawn also has significant experience in advising clients through software audits and related negotiations and settlements, open source software issues and software escrow matters. Shawn has been working in the field of AI for more than 10 years and is the founding member of the McDermott AI cross-practice group and resource center (ailawcenter.com). Shawn is regularly working with clients in connection with issues related to utilizing generative AI, particularly in the implementation and utilization of technologies like ChatGPT, Bard, Dall-E 2, Stable Diffusion, and GitHub Copilot.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Shawn Helms, Jason Krieser

Other key lawyers

David Guedry, Heather Bethancourt, Matthew King, Caitlin Howe, Raja Chatterjee