Howard Womersley Smith

As a dealmaker, Howard takes a vested approach by using the business context of a deal to form contractual protections for his clients. His recent experience includes managing large-scale tech outsourcing projects on behalf of clients in the defence sector.

On the cyber and data side of his practice, Howard delivers practical solutions to his clients’ needs. Through the use of legal tech and project management solutions, Howard successfully delivers large-scale cyber resilience, data compliance, and incident response projects.

By combining his tech transactions and outsourcing work with his data and cyber projects, Howard achieves operational resilience from a legal and compliance perspective for his clients. Howard is always keen to assist with implementing that perspective into operational reality and daily business activity.

Previous experience working in-house at COLT Telecom and Standard Chartered Bank (where he was a Global Head of Legal & Compliance for Commercial & Technology) has given Howard a unique understanding of his clients’ businesses and sectors. Having been in their shoes, Howard knows what his clients want.

Howard spent five years working in Hong Kong, and has an extensive network throughout Asia. He also mentors start-ups at the Barclays FinTech Accelerator.

In addition to his day-to-day practice, Howard is a Reservist Army Officer in the British Army, where he acts as a Legal Adviser to their Cyber Operations division.