A further relaxation of lockdown restrictions in England are expected on 17 May 2021 and the first repayments under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme are also due in May. Aside from COVID-19, in-house lawyers should also take note of the publication of the UK’s 6th carbon budget, which will require greenhouse gas emissions to be cut by 78% by 2035.
300 members of the International Compliance Association (ICA) were surveyed in September 2020 about their experience of diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the workforce. Their responses exposed some sobering statistics including that four in ten compliance professionals have experienced discrimination at work. However, the survey also recorded promising signs of progress in advancing D&I.
Since the winter agenda, the UK and EU formally exited the transition period on 31 December 2020, the UK GDPR entered force in the UK, and the EU GDPR regime is now a separate and parallel system. Businesses that are involved in processing activity in both the UK and the EU need to be compliant with both regimes. Continue reading
Lockdown restrictions are expected to be eased in England from 12 April 2021. Restart Grants will be available in England from 1 April and, from 6 April, the Recovery Loan Scheme will open to all UK businesses and most changes to the Immigration Rules will come into force.
At the start of the month, The Centre for Legal Leadership hosted the first of a series of webinars in conjunction with Practical Law on ethics and the in-house lawyer. Here is a summary of the key themes that were discussed at the event.
What are legal ethics?
In the “standard conception of legal ethics”, lawyers are:
Working in-house changes this dynamic somewhat as lawyers are closer to the culture and values of their organisation than external counsel.
Companies are constantly being challenged to review their existing operating models and improve the processes and technology that support them. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the related explosion in remote working, has fuelled the need for innovative solutions that can radically improve the efficiency and security of those models.
Contract management is one such case. The emergence of distributed ledger technology (blockchain), as well as significantly improved e-signature platforms and multi-party digital web-browsers, has made the document execution elements of contract management more efficient and flexible than ever before. When different technologies are adopted collaboratively, important legal contract requirements, such as authorised signing and witness signatures, can be met quickly and securely.
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way that we work and accelerated changes that might previously have taken ten years. Leaders are being challenged to adapt at the same pace, and the consequences of failure are significant. For example:
These outcomes will contribute to lower employee engagement, be obvious to clients and show up in financial performance. It is not possible to revert to business as usual. To succeed, leaders must remove limits on their thinking and look to the future. We believe the way forward should focus on inclusive leadership.
Why is UK adequacy relevant for the UK post-Brexit?
As the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC) did 20 years earlier, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) (EU GDPR) sets a severe restriction in the context of today’s increasingly interconnected and digitally borderless world. Transfers of personal data to a so-called “third country”, that is any country outside the European Economic Area (EEA), are only allowed subject to certain conditions, namely:
“Culture” is defined as the ideas, customs and social behaviours of a particular people or society. In organisations, culture encompasses the ideas, customs and beliefs that shape how people work together. Culture is made by people and is a defining factor in determining if they stay and, ultimately, what kind of talent you can attract.
The best cultures have a high degree of safety but safe here does not mean boring! It means an environment where individuals can be themselves and bring their whole range of thinking and creativity to work. Organisations with strong cultures are more innovative and better able to cope with adversity because they have the best talent.
In conjunction with Practical Law, The Centre for Legal Leadership is hosting a series of webinars throughout 2021 aimed at in-house lawyers.
Making ethical calls when advising your organisation
Date: 3 March 2021 (2:00pm-3:30pm)
In-house lawyers are subject to the ethical requirements of their professional bodies and their roles will often take them into areas that cover legal compliance and, increasingly, business ethics. This can highlight important issues relating to the purpose and independence of the in-house lawyer.