This month in-house lawyers should keep an eye on developments in corporate reporting, changes to the UK Immigration Rules, guidance on reducing the spread of respiratory infections (including COVID-19) in the workplace, and consultations on improving mental health and wellbeing.
SYKE is a global legal technology and operations consultancy that helps in-house legal teams choose, buy and implement legal technology. We work alongside our technology partners, such as Thomson Reuters, to offer our shared client’s implementation, integration and migration services.
Anglo American is a global organisation operating across many time zones, business units and jurisdictions. The Global Group Legal team was keen to move beyond simply managing risk and start delivering greater value to the business by becoming a genuinely strategic partner. They wanted a single view of matters and trends across all the jurisdictions that they operate in so that the legal team could proactively manage and address issues.
Episode 9 of The Construction Briefing podcast is now available.
This month we look at the Building Safety Bill, which has now concluded its passage through the House of Lords. The latest building safety developments include removal of the role of Building Safety Manager, a further update to Form EWS1 and agreements reached on who will pay for remediation works.
We also look at two Court of Appeal judgments addressing the embargo that applies to reserved court judgments: The Public Institution for Social Security v Banque Pictet & Cie SA and others [2022] EWCA Civ 368 and R (Counsel General for Wales) v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2022] EWCA Civ 181.
While many companies say that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is of paramount importance to them, there is still a disconnect between rhetoric and reality. After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, $50 billion was pledged by corporate America to advance racial justice but to date less than $2 billion has been distributed. Diversity in law still lags behind many comparable professions, and for those who are passionate about trying to advance this cause, there is frustration with the glacial pace of change.
The UK’s new Information Commissioner took charge in January and quickly opened a major listening exercise to gather feedback from businesses, organisations, and individuals about their experiences of engaging with the ICO. The consultation remains open until 1 May. Continue reading
The Thomson Reuters Institute has recently published its 2022 State of Corporate Law Departments report. The report captures the experiences of more than 2,000 senior in-house and private practice lawyers globally.
One of the headlines from the report is that 43% of those corporate law department leaders surveyed said that they expect their departments’ total spending on legal matters to increase in the coming 12 months, as opposed to just 21% that said they were anticipating a reduction in spending. This is the strongest indication yet of a significant upturn in the level of legal expenditure that the survey has tracked over the last decade.
The crisis in Ukraine (and the associated developing regime of sanctions against Russia) remains at the top of the agenda for businesses this month. In-house lawyers should also keep track of developments in economic crime, corporate transparency and corporate governance.
I attended a meeting of the Practical Law In-house Consultation Board a few weeks ago. The theme of the round table discussion was career progression in in-house legal teams. The board members had many fascinating insights to share from their own experiences fostering team environments that balance individual motivation and development with team success. The discussion covered a range of topics, including the:
I have reported on the board meeting in more depth in the article Consultation board round table: motivating and developing in-house talent.
The Centre for Legal Leadership’s first webinar of 2022, hosted in conjunction with Thomson Reuters, considered how in-house lawyers can be influential within their organisations, why this is so important and why it is sometimes difficult to achieve.
In-house lawyers have had a lot to grapple with in recent years: from advising on the implications of Brexit, through the challenges and opportunities arising from developments in digital technology, to the diverse range of legal problems presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Generally, the questions Practical Law Commercial receive through our Ask service reflect these trends. But whatever the hot topic of the moment, one theme has remained constant throughout: we receive many more questions on general contract and boilerplate than on any other topic.