REUTERS | Ricardo Moraes
November 1, 2016

The Tech Express: time to jump on board, say lawyers

“Computers are like bikinis.  They save people a lot of guesswork.”  Sam Ewing

A few days ago, my colleague, Karen Ngo, posted here outlining some practical steps leaders of in-house legal teams might take when identifying, acquiring and implementing the right technology for your legal department.

To follow up Karen’s key messages, I wanted to highlight some of the key takeaways from a recent report published by Legal Week Intelligence and Thomson Reuters which brings to life the shifting practices and attitudes of our in-house legal colleagues with regard to technology.  It is, after all, part of human nature for most of us to check we’re not completely out of step with conventional wisdom. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Maxim Shemetov
October 31, 2016

In-house agenda: November 2016

Key themes and developments on the agenda for businesses in November include the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, evaluating the first international anti-bribery management system standard and reviewing the Criminal Finances Bill. All in-house lawyers should also be aware that the new CPD regime will become compulsory on 1 November.

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REUTERS | Global Creative Services
October 28, 2016

How to identify, acquire and implement the right technology for your legal department

I recently moderated a panel session on legal technology at the Practical Law GC Leadership: Leading small and medium legal teams event. The session focused on how legal departments can identify, acquire and implement the most suitable technologies for their needs. Here are my top takeaways from it.

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REUTERS |
October 24, 2016

ISO 37001 – The first international anti-bribery management system standard

On October 14, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) published a global standard ISO 37001: Anti-Bribery Management Systems. This voluntary standard is designed to assist organisations around the world implement and maintain an effective and proportionate anti-bribery programme.

Organisations can choose to use it simply as an internal benchmarking tool or seek ISO 37001 certification of their anti-bribery programme through an accredited third party provider.

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REUTERS |
October 18, 2016

Anti-Slavery Commissioner publishes annual report

Today is Anti-Slavery Day, created in 2010 by a Private Member’s Bill introduced by former MP Anthony Steen CBE to raise awareness of modern slavery and to inspire government, business and individuals to eliminate it: an appropriate day to look at the first annual report from the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Kevin Hyland OBE, published last week. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Thomson Reuters
October 13, 2016

FCA discussion paper on the impact of the senior managers regime on the in-house legal function

On 28 September 2016 the FCA published a discussion paper (DP16/4) on whether the person who has overall responsibility for the legal function (the GC) at a bank, building society, credit union or PRA-designated investment firm (a Regulated Firm) should be a Senior Management Function (SMF) and therefore subject to the senior managers regime (SMR). If a GC is held to be an SMF, GC appointments at Regulated Firms would be subject to regulatory pre-approval, this including an assessment of fitness and propriety. Once approved, the GCs of Regulated Firms would also have to comply with additional conduct rules to those they are already subject to under the Solicitors Regulatory Authority,  Bar Standards Board (or other local equivalents).

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REUTERS | David Bebber
October 12, 2016

The times they are a-changin’

Earlier this week, economists Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström came close to a Nobel prize for law when the Royal Swedish Academy of the Sciences awarded them the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (strictly speaking not a Nobel prize; Nobel’s will included only five prizes and this was not one of them) for their work on the theory of contracts.
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REUTERS | Goran Tomasevic
October 5, 2016

Second chance: listen to our webinar on coping with complexity in law-making

This time last week I chaired a live webinar discussion on the impact on organisations of increasing complexity in the regulatory environment, between Vicky Marissen, Managing Director of PACT European Affairs, and Daniel Greenberg, Counsel for Domestic Legislation in the House of Commons.

For those unable to join us live, a recording of the webinar, with accompanying slide presentation, can be found here. I’ve summarised some of the key takeaways in this blog.

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REUTERS | Luke MacGregor
October 3, 2016

Employment round-up: autumn 2016

This round-up summarises the employment-related developments that generated the most interest from in-house lawyers in the past three months, including the delay of the gender pay gap reporting regulations, the introduction of the illegal working offence and the implications of Brexit on employment law in the UK. It also highlights several key employment cases.

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