Joe Pennell

Joe Pennell, co-leader of Mayer Brown’s Technology and IP Transactions Group, advises clients on complex technology, artificial intelligence (AI), digital infrastructure, SaaS and outsourcing transactions. His work includes agentic AI implementation and integration arrangements, AI-enabled business transformation, data center and infrastructure services, GPU-enabled compute offerings, hyperscale cloud and cloud ERP migrations, and large-scale managed services relationships. Joe helps clients translate legal, technical, operational and commercial complexity into practical deal terms governing performance, data use, intellectual property, service levels, implementation risk, liability, exit rights and long-term flexibility.

Joe is highly ranked by Chambers USA, where clients say: “Joe Pennell brings stellar value to our work not only from the legal perspective but also from a strategy standpoint. He brilliantly balances the legal risks with the objectives we're trying to accomplish.” Clients also note that Joe is “extraordinarily gifted at communicating complex concepts and relationships in simple but precise and concise terms.”

Joe has represented:

• One of the largest residential mortgage servicers in the United States in negotiating a comprehensive suite of agreements with a leading AI cloud services provider for deployment of an agentic AI-powered loan origination platform, including a cloud services agreement, order form, implementation statement of work, and information security addendum, and AI-specific provisions addressing autonomous AI operations, human oversight, training data restrictions, input/output ownership, operational guardrails, and liability allocation.
• A major residential mortgage servicer in negotiating commercial agreements governing adoption of an AI-powered SaaS platform and agentic AI technology in connection with a mortgage servicing business acquisition, addressing AI-driven automation, data ownership and use restrictions, model training limitations, agentic guardrail commitments, AI service change management, and indemnification for AI-generated content.
• A Fortune 500 chemicals company in contracting with SAP for a multi-year, phased migration from the company’s on-premises SAP ECC ERP system to SAP’s cloud-based S/4HANA platform, involving several hundred million dollars in committed subscription and professional services spend and rights to enable SAP’s latest AI products and services.
• One of the country’s five largest health insurance providers in a multi-vendor renegotiation involving MSAs, Statements of Work, and amendments with eleven vendors for IT and business process outsourcing services, with anticipated charges exceeding $1 billion.
• Numerous clients in cloud transactions, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) engagements opposite vendors such as AWS, Microsoft, Google, BlackRock (Aladdin), Workday, IBM, ICE and Black Knight.
• A global financial institution in negotiating a strategic alliance agreement with an enterprise software company, which resulted in the largest ever fully embedded Banking as a Service (BaaS) deployment into a globally recognized cloud ERP system.

• “Joe Pennell brings stellar value to our work not only from the legal perspective but also from a strategy standpoint. He brilliantly balances the legal risks with the objectives we're trying to accomplish.” – Chambers USA
• Joe is “extraordinarily gifted at communicating complex concepts and relationships in simple but precise and concise terms.” – Chambers USA

• Harvard Law School, JD
  
  • Senior Editor, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy
• Michigan State University, BS, with high honors, Electrical Engineering

• Illinois