The most significant Brexit developments this month centred around the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill 2017-19, which reached the Report Stage in the House of Lords.
REUTERS | Kacper Pempel
May 4, 2018
Brexit: April 2018 round-up
REUTERS | Gene Blevins
Diversity, whether gender, ethnic or cultural, is an increasingly high profile issue for organisations. But how can organisations be convinced to implement the changes required to ensure diversity?
The persuasive economic and business case for embracing diversity often leads back to a 2015 report by McKinsey & Company, which was updated earlier this year. The statistics and analysis in that report provide a useful tool for gaining attention from executive teams and planning how an organisation can respond postively and effectively to diversity-related measures. The updated report, summarised in this blog, offers fresh confirmation that supporting diversity makes sense for organisations in every respect.
REUTERS | Dominic Ebenbichler
April 30, 2018
What’s on the agenda for in-house lawyers in May 2018?
By far the most significant developments this month surround data protection and privacy. On 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) (GDPR) will become directly applicable in all EU member states.
REUTERS | Ognen Teofilovski
April 20, 2018
You’ve installed a whistleblowing hotline – now how can you get employees to use it (correctly)?
Every employer would rather they didn’t need a whistleblowing hotline, but those companies who value their employees and reputation understand that, if things do go wrong, an external hotline is a great safety net to ensure issues are highlighted early on and dealt with appropriately.
Although buying the services of an external provider is a good start, the important part is encouraging your people to contact the hotline with genuine concerns. Many of our clients tell us that even when they have established an internal hotline, and trained people to handle calls, uptake has been poor.
REUTERS | Jon Nazca
April 4, 2018
Brexit: March 2018 round-up
The key development this month was the publication of a revised version of the draft Article 50 withdrawal agreement, which highlights the areas on which the European Commission and the UK government now agree.
REUTERS | Mike Blake
The European Commission has today issued a notice to stakeholders outlining the ways in which the UK’s withdrawal from the EU will impact upon UK copyright. The notice confirms that, subject to any transitional arrangement to be agreed between the parties to the Brexit negotiations, as of the withdrawal date, the EU rules in the field of copyright will no longer apply to the UK.
REUTERS | Phil Noble
March 26, 2018
What’s on the agenda for in-house lawyers in April 2018?
Key items on the agenda for businesses this month include the due date for publication of the first gender pay gap reports and the continuing countdown to implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) (GDPR).
REUTERS | Shutterstock
A group of organisations representing the interests of rights holders and intellectual property (IP) practitioners across the EU has submitted a joint statement to the European Commission on the treatment of trade marks and design rights post-Brexit.
REUTERS | Global Creative Services (no copyright)
March 15, 2018
What’s new for corporate counsel in IT law in 2018?
It’s a 2 x 3 matrix for what’s new in IT Law in 2018. First, there’s a lot happening at the intersection of financial services and IT law, and of course there’s GDPR and Brexit. Second, we’ll all be seeing more “Fourth Industrial Revolution” legal work (such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA), blockchain and digital reality).
REUTERS | David Mdzinarishvili
March 12, 2018
Introducing Practical Law’s new in-house GDPR toolkit
The recent blog post by Ros Foster and Patrick O’Connell of Browne Jacobson invited us to take a step back from the awesome complexity of the GDPR as we get closer to 25 May and focus our energies on the Regulation’s core principles. It is too easy to get stuck in the GDPR’s “rush hour traffic” at this point and we hope our most recent GDPR content enhancement will help you maintain a sense of perspective. Continue reading