The nexus of legal and technical expertise

Andrew is a practising lawyer, qualified in England and Wales, specialising in open source legal and compliance work. He is a British and Irish national and is also qualified as a solicitor in Ireland (non practising).

Formerly a software developer, he is in demand worldwide as a keynote speaker on a wide range of open source software and open hardware topics, and has advised governments, transnational organisations and academic institutions as well as some of the world’s largest technology companies.

Andrew’s unique skillset lies at the intersection of open source software compliance and the legal framework which supports it.

Andrew also practises as a technology solicitor at leading London intellectual property law firm Bristows LLP where he heads the firm’s Open Source team. You can find out more about his legal work here.

With 30 years’ experience as a tech lawyer, combined with the development of a unique skillset in open source knowledge and experience, Andrew can offer clients a streamlined and effective solution to the challenges of cross-border open source compliance.

Meeting the needs of clients

In order to help clients meet the interlocking demands of open source specialism with legal expertise, Andrew established Orcro Limited in 2018. Orcro has in-house expertise in software engineering, open source community engagement, training, dev-ops, change management and business process analysis, enabling a fast, reliable, and, where possible, automated process for ensuring that new products are legally compliant – often across borders. He advises on open source licensing strategy and business models and has partnered with one of the world’s leading insurance businesses on an open source risk management framework.

Andrew’s clients have included some of the world’s leading technology companies, ranging from major multi-nationals through to specialist start-ups. Geographically, his clients span China and the Far East, North America and Europe.

Involvement in world-leading industry bodies

Andrew has industry-leading knowledge of the latest developments in open source software compliance – and has even been instrumental in driving that framework forward on a global basis. Notable contributions amongst many include:

· drafting the widely-used Solderpad Open Hardware Licence.

· sole external counsel on the drafting team of the CERN Open Hardware Licence, including navigating the licence suite through SPDX and OSI recognition.

· heavy involvement in the Linux Foundation’s OpenChain project where he chaired the UK WorkGroup and the Education Workgroup, drafted and maintains the OpenChain template open source policy and speaks regularly at OpenChain events. He has been appointed an OpenChain Ambassador and he will be speaking at the 2025 Open Compliance Summit in Japan (December).

· lead author on the Open Hardware section of the European Commission’s Impact Study on Open Source Software and Hardware.

Andrew has contributed to major publications on open source software governance, legal analysis and compliance. He regularly talks and keynotes at conferences worldwide. He will be teaching a course on Open Source Software at Queen Mary College, University of London, in June 2026. He is also visiting researcher at the University of Skövde in Sweden, where he has co-authored numerous papers with the Software Systems Research Group, and is due to commence a PhD researching the success factors applicable to open source software and open technologies at Oxford Brookes University in 2026 (where he also sits on the Advisory Board of the Oxford Brookes Law School) . For more information about his academic work, see here.