Are ‘bots a good thing? That was the question posed by IAG’s Head of Digital at our recent legal conference as he espoused the virtues of businesses keeping pace with digital developments to confront the threats such advances could otherwise pose. The legal and compliance teams from each group company had met to discuss best practice, provide an update on IAG’s strategic focus and digital initiatives, and team-build through exploring our own and our team’s personality traits.
Matthew Hancock MP, the Minister of State for Digital and Culture, will be giving a keynote speech on Brexit and the implications for the UK data protection landscape next Tuesday, 8 November, at Practical Law’s Future of Data Protection Forum. I look forward with interest to what the minister will have to say. Continue reading
“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
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.
BEIS has published a consultation setting out its proposals on how the Small Business Commissioner should handle complaints by small businesses about payment issues with larger businesses.
Continue reading
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.
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.
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
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).
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.
Continue reading