Gallitano & O'Connor, LLP

Formed in May 2005, Gallitano & O'Connor LLP is unique among law firms with its singular focus on technology and outsourcing transactions. Prior to forming the firm, Dennis Gallitano and Karen O'Connor were capital partners at one of the world's largest global law firms. The firm serves a diverse group of clients ranging in size from companies in the Fortune 10 to smaller, non-public companies. The firm's clients do business in a variety of industries, including health care, higher education, public services, financial services, insurance, consumer products, communications, real estate and manufacturing.

From the very beginning, the practice was built on our four-point promise of service and quality:

Unparalleled Knowledge and Experience - We focus 100% of our efforts on technology and outsourcing-related transactions.
Focus on Your Business Objectives - We never lose sight of the fact that our clients are buying product and service solutions required to satisfy real business needs and requirements.
Creativity - We are quick and creative thinkers, with a business problem-solving orientation to our work.
Leverage - We collaborate with our clients to design, implement and deploy strategies and techniques that both create and exploit leverage.
By keeping our focus on these basic principles, Gallitano & O'Connor quickly has earned each client's trust and confidence.

The Gallitano & O'Connor Story Begins

During his years as a systems engineer at IBM, Dennis Gallitano developed a thorough understanding of technology and project management. After receiving his law degree, Dennis began representing large health care systems in mergers and acquisitions. As health care systems became increasingly reliant on information technology (IT), his experience in technology and the law was a natural fit with this emerging field. Dennis quickly became a trusted advisor to clients contracting for IT solutions, leveraging his strong technical background and transactional lawyering skills.

Karen O'Connor began her career as a technology-oriented litigator. She joined the practice in the early 1990s and rapidly developed the capabilities needed to represent clients in large, sophisticated technology and outsourcing transactions.

Expanding in the Communications and E-Commerce Fields

In the mid-1990s, our practice expanded into the communications field when we represented the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority in its purchase of a digital and fiber optics communications system. Additional clients followed shortly thereafter, including MFS Communications, WorldCom, Level 3 Communications, Allegiance Telecom and others. As our representation of communications companies expanded, so did the firm's knowledge of the fundamentals of communications and networking infrastructure, including the industry's movement to Voice Over Internet Protocol and other related services.

By the late 1990s, both Gallitano's and O'Connor's practices expanded into the rapidly developing e-commerce industry. General Motors and its new e-commerce division, e-GM, selected Gallitano and O'Connor to represent it in connection with a number of initiatives, including the formation of Covisint, a joint venture among GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler and Renault/Nissan. Gallitano and O'Connor continued to represent a wide variety of clients in significant technology transactions, including GM, health care systems, and major companies and institutions in a wide variety of industries. This work established Gallitano and O'Connor as preeminent technology lawyers in the country.

Surge into Higher Education and Clinical Information Systems

As the millennium approached, Gallitano and O'Connor expanded their practice into the higher education field, focusing primarily on the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and, at the same time, representing major academic medical centers in the acquisition of clinical information systems. Clients included both public and private universities, university-based medical centers and research entities. Today, Gallitano & O'Connor represents many leading institutions and organizations around the country in these two key practice areas.

Natural Progression into Outsourcing

The growing popularity of technology and business process outsourcing led Gallitano and O'Connor to apply their skills in yet another area. We have handled outsourcing transactions valued in the hundreds of million dollars, including those involving full data center, data and voice communications, desktop and help desk support, applications management and other services. Gallitano & O'Connor's expertise in technology and skill at negotiating large, complex transactions is vital to the success of our clients' outsourcing projects - and the success of their businesses.

Technology Associations - Bringing it all Together

As the technology field grew, cooperation, compatibility and common standards increasingly have become an important part of the technology landscape. Rather than creating proprietary technologies that would not work together, major technology manufacturers began forming industry-based consortia to create common standards and technology platforms from which to launch their products. To guide these cooperative efforts, these companies looked for lawyers skilled in the technology field. Today, Gallitano & O'Connor represents several of the most important technology associations created to promote emerging standards and technologies.

The Future

Gallitano & O'Connor has distinguished its practice from that of its peers by its innovative approach to serving clients in the still-emerging field of technology law. At Gallitano & O'Connor, every lawyer approaches a technology transaction as the acquisition of a business solution, not merely the licensing of software or the purchase of equipment. We understand what it takes to implement sophisticated technologies for businesses. Success or failure often hinges on securing appropriate technical products, skills and resources, and that is where our experience makes the difference for our clients. Our unique approach to technology contracting combines precise and comprehensive legal drafting with solid business advice on how to best mitigate the inherent risks in a technology project.

Clients have looked to Gallitano & O'Connor for innovative and creative lawyering in the technology field based on the firm's experience, creativity, technical know how and sheer lawyering abilities. As the technology industry grows and new challenges are presented, the firm is uniquely positioned to help its clients face these new challenges.