Your legal edge in Commercial IT, Data, AI, Innovation & Tech. Senior know-how • flexibly available how you need it.

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Gets things done - and creates real value for clients and partners.

Rene is a senior, highly skilled and very experienced in-house counsel in international legal and compliance matters. He has in-depth understanding of complex commercial contracts, IPR and licensing, R&D regulations, IT/Data privacy laws, compliance matters, and other legal areas. Rene has recognized expert knowledge in the R&D and IT industry (e.g. 5G, connected mobility, digitalization, industry 4.0 Projects). With a strong business focussed, highly organized and problem-solving approach he very successfully built up and headed the Legal Dept of Huawei’s European Research Center giving excellent legal advice. A very skilled negotiator seeking for favorable conditions and flexible options for mutual gains. He was always a trustable, reliable, confident, open colleague and friend with positive values. Rene is getting things done, makes business possible and is for sure creating value for its customers and partners.

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One of the best legal counsels I have worked with in two decades - driving R&D, IP and complex programs.

Rene Schneider is one of the best legal counsels I have worked with in my two decades in the IT services industry. In all my collaborations with him I always felt he added great value through his sound knowledge of the law, a sharp analytical mind and appreciation for the larger business objectives. Rene and I worked closely in driving Cognizant’s approach towards emerging technology related R&D in the European region. Thanks to his contributions we were able to establish vibrant research collaborations with leading universities and research institutions in UK, Netherlands and Germany. One initiative in particular that stood out was Rene’s efforts as lead counsel for Cognizant in a cutting edge European Space Agency program pertaining to satellite based Quantum communication. It was a multi-tower program involving a global consortium and had a number of other complexities related to intellectual property, export control etc. In many ways this was first of a kind for our organization and Rene drove the legal discussions with great effectiveness. He set in motion efforts in our company to establish a framework for handling such programs. Working with Rene was a great experience and I would gladly welcome future opportunities to work with him again.

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His pragmatic solutions always went above and beyond our expectations - clear insights for crucial business decisions.

I recently had the opportunity to work with René when he served as a consultant to our global data privacy team, assisting with various privacy and IT-related matters. He advised in particular on data transfer issues (especially cross-border data transfers following the invalidation of the U.S. Privacy Shield) and helped develop templates and best practices to comply with applicable regulations. His assistance in negotiating complex IT agreements with our business partners was also very helpful. René is an excellent lawyer and privacy expert. His work always went above and beyond our expectations. René has a knack for providing clear insights that have helped us make crucial decisions for our business. He did this in a way that was easy to understand and digest, with a positive attitude. René knew what was important for our business and our customers and always helped to find a pragmatic but lawful solution. He assessed risks by taking legal requirements into account in a way that was also mindful of business needs. Working with Rene was a great experience, and I would gladly welcome future opportunities to work with him again. I certainly recommend him without hesitation.

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Get the deal done - his approach is just perfect.

In a very challenging project comprising real estate purchase, redevelopment and engineering, I worked closely together with René being the inhouse counsel and first contact of our client for more than a year. René’s high level of business orientation enables him to always make the right judgement on which aspects are for decision at commercial level and which for legal assessment. René has broad legal skills and high competence in dealing with difficult phases of contract negotiations with international background. He never loses sight of the big picture. His thinking ‘out of the box’ helps to overcome issues efficiently and to find solutions for a successful outcome for the client. His ‘get the deal done’ approach is just perfect for a successful cooperation with an external counsel. I appreciated his courageous and success-driven positive attitude towards all parties involved, which brought an efficient and trustful negotiation process. René is very knowledgeable in legal details, able to work under high pressure and fully committed to the best results for his company. He has a full understanding of cultural differences in the arena of global companies.

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Secured all parties’ interests in a complex public 140M GSM-R railway network project - professionally and pragmatically.

René and I worked together for a bigger telco project in Germany. It was a fortune to have him as my counterpart on Huawei’s side as it turned out that he was always open minded, very professional and practice-oriented. Towards our companies’ common customer René not only supported us in relation to typical contractual issues like claim management, but also provided important input to successfully ensure that our companies’ interests in the project were secured. All in all: a pleasure to have worked together!

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Closed a complex multi-bank platform deal - and made it work for all parties.

Rene is a very well respected professional and great to work with. Have had the opportunity to work with him on a strategic initiative for Cognizant – Digital Retail Banking platform for multiple Banks in Finland. The platform involves core modernization and is expected to deliver agility to the Banks and faster time to market. Rene was driving the legal negotiations and procurement of the product software for the platform. The contract was complex and very challenging especially since the contract was extensible to a much wider customer base. Rene, with his great ability to have a balanced view of the business and the legal solutions, brought to table a wholistic approach and ensured that a Win-Win solution was driven both for Cognizant and the product vendor. This has paved the way for a very positive start to the platform journey. His professionalism was amazing and well respected all through the journey by all parties. I would definitely recommend him as a colleague.

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Quick, on point, invaluable - set up all contracts for our global Door James SaaS rollout.

Working with you is incredibly fun, easy and excellent in terms of content. Thanks to you, we were able to set up numerous customer contracts for our product Door James, and work on new features such as event management and evacuation management. No matter what questions we have – your answers are always quick and on the point. Your experience and expertise in the product business is incredibly valuable. I look forward to working with you in many more projects.

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Excellent legal and negotiation skills - establishing the 5G Automotive Association.

Rene is a highly engaged and very supportive colleague. He has excellent legal, social and negotiation skills which he brought in for establishing the 5G Automotive Association in September 2016. He has also the ability to perform under high pressure and is very constructive during negotiations.

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Essential support to R&D contracting - pragmatic and specific legal solutions.

Rene is an enthusiastic and self-driven lawyer who has been an essential support to our R&D contracting with large and SME partners. He has a great ability to contribute to a business challenge with pragmatic and specific legal solutions and has greatly supported our contract closing in an international organization. He will be an asset to any dynamic organization with broad legal requirements.

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Goes the extra mile with strong client focus and wide-ranging experience in IP, R&D and technology.

A charming and highly motivated professional who goes the extra mile. Strong client focus and wide ranging experience in intellectual property, research and development in the technology sector.

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Solves legal obstacles in negotiations - fast, proactive, business-minded.

Rene worked with me and my lawyers in the last 4 years. Rene is highly professional and a dedicated lawyer. He understands the business aspects as well as the legal aspects. He is very responsive and proactive. He solved many legal issues and obstacles during negotiations on different legal issues.

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Cutting down complexity to the bare minimum - delivering multimillion contracts gaining solid reputation for the company.

Rene is a trustworthy and accomplished professional. We worked together in bringing up the internal processes required for the European research projects in which the company was starting to take leading roles. Rene proved to be an efficient, practical and thorough professional, cutting down complexity to the bare minimum while navigating extremely complex situations. Rene has since built a solid career, managing the legal framework for multimillion contracts that have earned the company a solid reputation and trust in the European arena. Rene can bring expertise, high working capacity and commitment to any organization, while being at the same time a pleasant and positive attitude colleague.

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Legally precise and business-focused - valuable in every working group.

I worked with René Schneider on several projects in our Bitkom Data Protection Working Groups, especially regarding third country data transfers. He was very dedicated and his contributions were always absolutely on point and he added great value for all the working groups because he provided legal expertise with a highly analytical mindset but always also focusing on the business objectives. I look forward to all of our collaborations in the future.

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Enthusiastic, positive - created the legal framework within very short time.

Recently I got introduced to René as I was busy to set up a new business entity for my own. His enthusiasm, positive mind-setting and ideas were just outrageous, so that I was able to overlook and create the required legal framework within very short time. Excellent job and furthermore René has my strongest recommendation.

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Navigated IP, governance and legal complexity - so innovation projects could succeed.

I worked with Rene closely in our innovation project setup and related activities. Rene was an excellent guide during my innovation project setup phase in explaining the legal complication around such a project set-up particularly for IP ownership related issues, governance and other things I didn’t even know were important to consider at that time. I was happy to have him by my side for the innovation project setup and its later execution.

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Efficient, organized, results-driven - gets contracts over the finish line.

René is a skilled and focused lawyer and incredibly fun to work with. During contract preparations and negotiations I liked his efficient way of prioritizing and getting stuff over the finish line. Also he always offers a helping hand when needed, sees and utilizes opportunities to thrive and is very well organized.

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Strong and confident negotiator with team spirit and a decisive ‘can do’ attitude.

René is great to work with! As a strong and confident negotiator, he is a valuable asset to any team and I have always appreciated René’s team spirit and ‘can do’ attitude. He has been a great support throughout the time we worked together, not only because of his sound legal knowledge.

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Concrete solutions on complex IP/IT and privacy matters - across industry sectors.

René Schneider as Legal Director and Senior IP Counsel at Cognizant has been a very collaborative, precise and professional colleague. René is a highly trained and educated IP, IT and Privacy lawyer who has always worked to bring concrete solutions and wordings on IP matters in several complex IT contracts with customers from several industry sectors (banking, insurance, life-science). And cherry on the cake, René is a very nice chap with a high sense of humor.

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Trusted legal advisor across cultures and jurisdictions - always compliant, always reliable.

Rene is a trustworthy colleague when I worked with him in past years. Whenever I have any legal issues in my business, I can always get professional consulting service from him. I highly appreciate and trust Rene’s expertise to ensure our business is legally compliant completely. Furthermore, Rene’s experience in cross-cultural environments would be a very helpful add-on to multinationals.

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Combines deep IT and privacy law expertise with speed, pragmatism and ownership our demanding corporate clients request.

Rene supported DataGuard as an external Senior Privacy Consultant and DPO from early 2020 to January 2024. He handled privacy and DPO matters for 200 of our largest corporate clients, groups with complex, often international structures. These clients are extremely demanding on quality, precision, speed and pragmatism, and often expect their privacy consultant to also factor in legal considerations. As an experienced IT and privacy lawyer, Rene always kept this dimension in mind in his advice. He was especially vital on contracts and DPAs, finding pragmatic solutions across IT, software and XaaS agreements, DPAs and for reliable third country data transfers. He was equally effective enabling GDPR-compliant products, services, marketing and digitization projects. Well before AI became common, he built an automated DPA review tool still used for thousands assessments a year, massively boosting our efficiency. On top of his expertise, Rene is fast, reliable and efficient, always takes ownership, exactly what you need in a privacy tech startup.