On Friday 5th May, Transparency International UK (TI-UK) held its latest Business Integrity Forum meeting at Thomson Reuters in Canary Wharf with more than 50 participants (primarily in-house legal and compliance experts) from 30 companies. This event covered a number of relevant issues for in-house counsel and compliance officers.
In the wake of the recent national ransomware attack and significant fines being imposed on Facebook and WhatsApp, it seems that data protection is hitting the front pages more frequently than ever before (see Legal update, Commission fines Facebook for providing misleading information about acquisition of WhatsApp). This is a trend that is only likely to increase as cyber attacks grow in ferocity, strength and impact, and with the advent of rigorous compliance requirements and substantial fines under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which becomes effective a year today. Continue reading
Based on the experience of company secretaries and best practice as carried out in some of the UK’s largest listed companies, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) recently published a useful guidance note on terms of reference for audit committees.
Key developments in April included the European Council’s adoption of EU negotiating guidelines for Brexit and the publication of a report by the House of Commons Exiting the European Union Committee on the UK government’s negotiating objectives.
Has your ethics and compliance program become a coral reef? That was one of the questions posed to attendees at the ECI annual conference in Washington DC last week at LRN’s session on program effectiveness.
Theresa May’s announcement of a general election on 8 June 2017, and the accompanying period of “purdah”, will have an impact on several issues that in-house lawyers have been tracking recently, in particular the various proposals on corporate governance reform. Other notable developments this month include final guidance on gender pay gap reporting and two consultations on the General Data Protection Regulation.
You may already be aware that Practical Law’s In-house team has compiled a survey with a view to understanding how organisations are reacting to the Brexit vote, but if you have not already participated and would like to do so, you can access the survey by following this link.
I have recently attended two events organised by Thomson Reuters. The first was a day dedicated to knowledge management – specifically management of legal know how; the second was devoted to analysis of trends and developments in insurance law.
Despite their different subject matters, significant portions of both days were given over to the common theme of “the impact of technology” and methods of planning for and capitalising on new technologies available – with consideration being given to the longer-term consequences of computers’ increasing ability to outperform humans for the future of roles in the legal profession.
Key developments in March included the government triggering Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union and publication of the government’s White Paper: Legislating for the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.
Businesses should review their competition risk assessment in light of new measures announced in March. These encourage individuals to recognise and anonymously report anti-competitive practices at both the European and the national level. If they are a success, these measures could lead to an increase in investigations and reduce the availability of leniency programmes.