If you are involved in IT or telecoms at a law firm, you will probably be part of the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) group, even though these are three fairly distinct practice areas. The current vogue among technology lawyers is outsourcing. This trend has spread to companies outsourcing a whole host of functions that are not core to their businesses. Telecoms lawyers are a different beast. In the biggest firms they tend to provide the regulatory input to large deals, such as a merger or takeover.
TMT departments are fairly collegiate because everybody tends to work together to provide their input on whichever parts of the law they are most familiar with. Telecoms lawyers will often travel a lot, working with companies investing in new and growing economies. They will work a great deal with economists and politicians, because often governments will be selling state-run telecoms companies to their clients.
Telecoms lawyers must have an interest and a general knowledge of the technology industry. They should also be good communicators, capable of explaining complex technologies to non-techies.
