Practical Law

Yesterday I met with Jenny Block (General Counsel at Ofwat) and Chris Fowler (General Counsel Technology at BT Group plc) ahead of a Centre for Legal Leadership webinar on 23 February 2022. Chris and Jenny plan to discuss how the in-house lawyer can ensure that they are involved in the most legally significant areas of their … Continue reading What does it take to be an ‘influential’ in-house lawyer? →

Need to keep on top of EU law developments as they unfold? Need information on the best business vehicle to use in the Netherlands? Want to know how to set up a partnership or acquire a business in a France or Spain? Verify the execution requirements for your counterparty in Ireland or find out where … Continue reading Join us for a live briefing on Practical Law’s EU and Europe materials →

Join me on 14 December 2021 for a live webinar. I’ll be talking to selected experts from across Practical Law’s editorial team as they look back on 2021 and ahead to 2022. We’ll be talking about key developments in ESG, data privacy, employment and compliance and what to look out for on the horizon. Meet the … Continue reading Year-in-review discussion with your Practical Law editors →

Ever wondered about what life is like on the Practical Law editorial team? We often get substantive questions about our content but sometimes people are curious to see behind the scenes too. Later this week, one of our editorial directors will be hosting an informal chat about life on our editorial team. You’ll hear from … Continue reading Meet an Editor: Live Drop in Q&A →

In February’s vlog, I discuss ongoing preparations for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the consultation on amendments to the UK Corporate Governance Code, the government’s response to the Taylor Review,  the feasibility of virtual-only AGMs, the government’s new Office for Product Safety and Standards and other developments on the horizon for April 2018 and beyond. … Continue reading February vlog: less than 100 days before GDPR implementation →

Reflecting on Richard Thaler’s Nobel prize for Economics in recognition of his work on ‘nudge’ theory, in November’s vlog I highlight a number of recent initiatives where smaller organisations are being gently encouraged to follow guidance or regulation aimed at larger ones.

The final report of the Parker Review Committee was published on 12 October 2017. Although the report does not make any concrete proposals in relation to extending its recommendations beyond listed companies, it does contain some practical tools for thinking about diversity that will be of interest to all organisations, not just those directly touched … Continue reading Parker Review on ethnic diversity: thinking points for unlisted companies and other organisations →

October’s vlog focuses on preparations for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Over 70% of respondents to our recent survey on GDPR compliance thought it would necessitate significant changes to some of their business processes but 13% hadn’t yet begun to tackling the task of compliance.

The ICO Data Protection Practitioners’ Conference took place on 6 March. It highlighted several initiatives that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will be taking in the coming months, including: Working on privacy seal accreditation at EU level and will use this work to inform its own work in the area of privacy seals, although this … Continue reading Key points from the ICO Data Protection Practitioners’ Conference →

December’s vlog focuses on developments on the horizon around corporate reporting.

Earlier this week, economists Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström came close to a Nobel prize for law when the Royal Swedish Academy of the Sciences awarded them the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (strictly speaking not a Nobel prize; Nobel’s will included only five prizes and this was not … Continue reading The times they are a-changin’ →

This time last week I chaired a live webinar discussion on the impact on organisations of increasing complexity in the regulatory environment, between Vicky Marissen, Managing Director of PACT European Affairs, and Daniel Greenberg, Counsel for Domestic Legislation in the House of Commons. For those unable to join us live, a recording of the webinar, … Continue reading Second chance: listen to our webinar on coping with complexity in law-making →

The SRA yesterday published a brief update on the issues it is considering in light of the EU referendum. The update confirms that there has been: No change in its approach to authorising firms, including those with branch offices or related businesses in the EU. No change to the regulatory position of EU lawyers working … Continue reading SRA’s update on Brexit impact →

Richard Moorhead recently drew my attention to a fascinating draft research paper  from Robert Anderson and Jeffrey Manns, both associate professors at US law schools, on the drafting of US merger agreements. The authors used computer textual analysis to review around 12,000 public merger agreements filed in the US over 20 years. They were able … Continue reading Inefficient, irrational and risky: is this transactional drafting in practice? →

On 12 July 2016, the European Commission adopted an adequacy decision approving the Privacy Shield framework for EU-US personal data transfers in a commercial context. In principle, this clears the way for cross-border data transfers to US self-certified companies to take place from 1 August 2016, within a framework based on an enhanced version of … Continue reading EU/US Privacy Shield: a feast for crows →

At a recent breakfast briefing hosted by Practical Law,  a panel of general counsel and company secretaries of FTSE 100 companies (Eleanor Evans of Rio Tinto, David Jackson of BP and Rosemary Martin of Vodafone) discussed the steps they are taking to implement the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). The key takeaways from the briefing related to … Continue reading How are companies preparing for MAR? Insights from the FTSE 100 →

Back in March at the GC Leadership Forum, we heard an inspiring keynote about the purposeless company from Will Hutton, chair of the Big Innovation Centre and Principal of Hertford College, Oxford. Hutton’s proposition is that many companies have – for a variety of reasons – become ownerless, purposeless vehicles driven by short term shareholder … Continue reading The purposeful company: Big Innovation Centre call for evidence →

The international anti-corruption summit took place in London last week.

The European Parliament has today adopted the data protection reform package, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This follows adoption by the European Union’s Council of Ministers on Monday and brings the European legislative process to a close.

This week, a colleague shared with me a new white paper entitled Artificial Intelligence in Law: The State of Play 2016 by Michael Mills of Neota Logic. The paper looks at how artificial intelligence (AI) is being implemented right now in areas such as legal research, compliance, contract analysis, case prediction, and document automation.

When Practical Law began, more than 20 years ago, we had a simple mission that still holds firm today: to demystify the law and bring practical law to companies. A key part of that mission is striving to write as simply as we can, using plain English. When we took our standard documents to China, … Continue reading Terms and conditions apply! →

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has recently published its response to the news that political agreement has been reached on a new EU-US Privacy Shield to replace the Safe Harbor. Most of what the ICO has to say will no longer be news to those that are following developments in the field closely, but the … Continue reading EU-US Privacy Shield agreement: the five things you need to know now →

For the first time last week, a criminal court considered a failure by a company to prevent corruption under the Bribery Act 2010 (section 7) and approved the UK SFO’s first Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA). The case generated such interest that the public hearing on Monday had to be moved to a bigger courtroom to … Continue reading Four lessons for companies from the UK SFO’s first DPA and first enforcement of the corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery →