REUTERS | Toby Melville
May 5, 2020

COVID-19: what do you do when you can fulfill some, but not all, of your business-to-business contracts?

COVID-19 has decimated supply chains for goods and labour across the world. It is inevitable that many businesses are now facing the same dilemma: what to do when they have enough resources to fulfill some of their contracts, but not all.

What do you do when you have orders for 50 pallets of toilet roll, for ten different customers, but only 25 pallets have been manufactured and delivered? Do you give everyone 2.5 pallets, or give your biggest customer their full 25 pallet order and hope that the other nine customers won’t sue you for breach?

There is no principle of English law that tells you how to make this decision. Rather you will need to conduct a careful balancing act based on your organisation’s specific circumstances. This balancing act will need to consider dimensions of risk, profit, relationships, ethics and the public good.

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REUTERS | Dominic Ebenbichler
May 4, 2020

COVID-19: brief overview of the key data protection issues

It goes without saying that the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed our daily lives. Many of us are adapting to government-issued restrictions, remote working, and other measures designed to combat the spread of the virus. Andy Gilman, President and CEO of CommCore Consulting once said that “the secret of crisis management is not good versus bad, it’s preventing the bad from getting worse.” Continue reading →

REUTERS | Kacper Pempel
April 30, 2020

How smart does a contract need to be to be a smart contract?

Smart is the new black! We use smart-phones to make calls, smart-watches to check the time, and watch news on smart-TVs, while sipping tea prepared by a smart-kettle. Smart-cars driving us through the streets of smart-cities to our smart-homes, while we are doing a bit of smart-working, are just around the corner.

The legal profession is trying to smarten up too, but there is one “smart” that lawyers still approach with caution: smart contracts. In the last two or three years they have generated a lot of hype, with some commentators predicting that they will fundamentally change how we contract with each other, eventually eradicating the need for lawyers to draft contracts and for judges to adjudicate on them. These contracts will be so smart that they will do whatever is required automatically, leaving no room for non-performance, competing interpretations or disputes. Sounds fantastic; but is it feasible and how exactly are these smart contracts different from conventional contracts?

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REUTERS |
April 27, 2020

Contact tracing apps: balancing the privacy risks

Countries around the world including the UK have announced their intention to rapidly develop and deploy contact tracing apps to access data from mobile phones as a means to carry out surveillance about the spread of COVID-19. The aim is to use the tool as part of the efforts to kickstart the economy and return to a state of normality more rapidly. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Mike Blake
April 7, 2020

Sourcing legal services in 2020: updated and expanded legal panel review materials

Legal panel reviews are a well-established way for companies and large public sector bodies to formally appoint a group of law firms to their panel, establish common ways of working and benefit from more competitive rates and volume discounts.

However, while the purposes of a panel review may be well-understood, panel reviews are complex and unique projects that require thoughtful handling. To get the most out of them it pays to keep your finger on the pulse of the legal market, set a strategy, and always, always have a plan.

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REUTERS | Esam Al-Fetori
April 2, 2020

Why boards should appoint younger non-executive directors

The average age of non-executive directors (NEDs) serving on the top 150 FTSE boards was 60.6 in 2018, up from 59 in 2013 and 58.5 in 2008. This represents a 3.6% increase over a ten-year period according to the 2018 UK Spencer Stuart Board Index. NEDonBoard believes that there is a risk that having an older NED pool might mean businesses are out of touch with contemporary practices and make boards unprepared to address emerging issues, such as cybersecurity, climate change and digital transformation.

NEDonBoard is an advocate of increasing the representation of younger NEDs on boards. Although some sectors are at the forefront of cross-generational representation on boards, notably technology, most boards continue to value broad business experience above all else.

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REUTERS | Jorge Adorno
March 26, 2020

Ten key things for effective remote working

In the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic, organisations globally are now living the reality of what their business looks like when the majority of its workforce is remote.

For those of us who work remotely on a regular basis, we know that it’s not as easy as it may seem. The distractions are plentiful, it can be harder to feel motivated, human connection is dramatically reduced – and all of this has an impact on how effective we can be.

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REUTERS | Ognen Teofilovski
March 20, 2020

Dealing with anxiety, finding balance and maintaining wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic

These are unprecedented times. As the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic unfolds, we find ourselves in a world that is increasingly unfamiliar and changing daily. Many legal professionals are working from home, teams are disconnected and whole offices are closing as we follow government guidelines to fight COVID-19. As well as the physical threat, many people are also experiencing high levels of concern and anxiety about their own health and the health of family members.

When humans are faced with a threat, it is a natural and biological response for the brain to generate a fight or flight response so that we can be prepared to run or defend ourselves against danger. This response can save your life in some situations but chronic levels of uncertainty and stress, which some individuals may be experiencing now, can be long-lasting and damaging (see Practice note, Mental health, stress and wellbeing in the legal profession: an introduction).

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