On 18 September 2018, I attended a roundtable discussion with Bracewell (UK) LLP partners Jason Fox, Oliver Irwin, Adam Blythe and John Gilbert to talk about the state of the debt and M&A in oil and gas markets.
REUTERS | David Mdzinarishvili
September 21, 2018
Industry analysis: a buoyant market for energy upstream oil and gas borrowers and M&A
REUTERS | Michaela Rehle
September 18, 2018
ICO regulatory sandbox: your chance to shape the privacy and innovation discussion
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recently opened a consultation on the establishment of a regulatory sandbox. The idea draws inspiration from a similar scheme undertaken by the Financial Conduct Authority and was first proposed by the ICO in its Technology Strategy 2018-2021, published in March. The proposal foresees a “safe space where organisations are supported to develop the innovative products and services using personal data in innovative ways”. Continue reading
REUTERS | Kacper Pempel
In the last few years, General Counsel ‘Barometers’ on legal management, technology trends and digital transformation have started to appear, assessing in-house responses to these key and overlapping issues. One of the areas they all focus on is contract life-cycle management (CLM) software, which is identified by Wolters Kluwer as “the most common type of work where legal teams use technology” and by EY as “transforming and vastly accelerating time-consuming detail work”.
Although the range of CLM software providers can seem bewildering (two recent reports by Forrester and Software Advice each identified over 20 different providers with remarkably little overlap) they can be segmented into three types.
REUTERS | Amit Dave
September 11, 2018
Diversity and inclusion in the workplace with Yasmin Sheikh
Practical Law recently spoke with Yasmin Sheikh, founder of Diverse Matters, a consultancy that helps people have confidence around disability, both visible and non-visible. She is also Vice-Chair of the Law Society’s Lawyers with Disability Division.
Across a series of three videos, Sheikh discusses diversity and inclusion in the workplace, breaking down what disability means and providing practical tips for employers and employees on how to address and normalise disability in the workplace.
REUTERS | Christian Charisius
September 6, 2018
Allocating and controlling risks in commercial contracts
An in-house lawyer’s edict when negotiating a contract is simple: “make sure our risk exposure is as low as possible” and of course, “let’s sign this as soon as possible!”
How can a business translate its risk exposure into its contracts and how can the in-house lawyer facilitate the business with this? Practical Law Commercial’s new Practice Note, Allocating and controlling risks in commercial contracts, explains how contractual clauses can be used to allocate and control risks between the parties.
REUTERS | Mike Blake
September 3, 2018
Summer round-up: key developments you may have missed
It’s that time of year again. Many of us are currently facing the music, getting back to our desks and trying to work out what we’ve missed. With that in mind, I’ve compiled a short digest of some of the key pieces of current awareness covered by Practical Law over July and August. These centre on Brexit (inevitably), corporate governance, data protection, modern slavery and the gender pay gap. Continue reading
REUTERS | Jon Nazca
September 3, 2018
Brexit: August 2018 round-up
In August, the government outlined its preparations for a no-deal scenario and published the first 25 in a series of “no deal” technical notices.
No-deal Brexit speech
“No deal” describes the scenario in which the UK and the EU fail to conclude a draft withdrawal agreement by the time of the UK’s exit from the EU. Instead of a co-ordinated or negotiated departure that would minimise disruption for businesses and individuals, this would result in a lack of transition period and a sudden “cliff-edge” break in the application of EU rules to the UK at 11pm on 29 March 2019. Continue reading
REUTERS | Mike Blake
August 24, 2018
What’s on the agenda for in-house lawyers in September 2018?
Key items on the agenda for businesses this month include a consultation on a new Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, the launch of an independent review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, a report on gender pay gap reporting and publication of revised guidance on the strategic report.
REUTERS | Global Creative Services (no copyright)
Practical Law has recently launched a survey to help in-house legal departments benchmark their approach to technology. The survey looks at how technology is impacting the working lives of in-house lawyers across the board covering everything from the impact on their day-to-day work, the changing needs from the business in terms of advice on technology-related procurement and development, to the use of legal tech within in-house legal departments themselves.
REUTERS | Luke MacGregor
August 7, 2018
Brexit: Finding certainty
Brexit readiness for businesses has slowed considerably. A combination of uncertainty and GDPR preparation has pushed it to the back of the agenda for in-house lawyers. But with only seven and a half months to go before the leave date (and a potential no deal scenario) we must find some certainty before we run out of time to make decisions and enact contingency plans.
In our recent survey with Acritas, Attitudes to Brexit – In House Lawyer Perspectives Across Europe, we found that three quarters of European in-house lawyers are spending less than 10% of their time preparing for Brexit, with some spending none at all. A huge 63% of respondents are expecting Brexit will be business as usual for them with no increase in legal work. But in the UK we cannot assume it will be business as usual and we do not have the luxury of waiting for certainty on the legal framework of Brexit.