REUTERS | David Mdzinarishvili
September 15, 2016

SRA’s update on Brexit impact

The SRA yesterday published a brief update on the issues it is considering in light of the EU referendum.

The update confirms that there has been:

  • No change in its approach to authorising firms, including those with branch offices or related businesses in the EU.
  • No change to the regulatory position of EU lawyers working in the UK and in particular no change in the Registered European Lawyers, Exempt European Lawyers or Registered Foreign Lawyers arrangements, or the Qualified Lawyer Transfer Scheme.
  • No change to employment rights of UK citizens working in other EU member states, or their right to argue before the EU tribunals, such as the ECJ. Continue reading →
REUTERS |
September 12, 2016

Executive pay: further call for change in paper released by Chris Philp, MP

The issue of executive pay has increasingly been the subject of press coverage in 2016, particularly since the speech made by Theresa May before becoming Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative party in which she outlined her proposals to make changes to corporate governance, including executive pay.

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REUTERS | Kacper Pempel
September 7, 2016

Inefficient, irrational and risky: is this transactional drafting in practice?

Richard Moorhead recently drew my attention to a fascinating draft research paper  from Robert Anderson and Jeffrey Manns, both associate professors at US law schools, on the drafting of US merger agreements.

The authors used computer textual analysis to review around 12,000 public merger agreements filed in the US over 20 years. They were able to construct ‘family trees’ around these agreements, tracing the precedents used for each deal and determining how those precedents had changed over time. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Dominic Ebenbichler
August 26, 2016

In-house agenda: September 2016

Key themes and developments on the agenda for businesses in September include reviewing revised directors’ remuneration reporting guidance, analysing the issues for boards to consider in the light of Brexit and keeping track of EU-US Privacy Shield developments.

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REUTERS | Vasily Fedosenko
August 26, 2016

Approaching the Brexit maelstrom: steadying the ship and readying the crew

Many of us are still getting over the shock of the UK’s unexpected decision to leave the EU. Politicians of all hues in the UK and across the continent, sent into a spin, begin to grapple with the geopolitical and economic consequences. Theresa May’s fledgling UK government starts to contemplate its Brexit negotiation strategy. The role of the EU’s rulebook, which was first consolidated into UK law some 43 years ago and has developed complex tentacles ever since, is in question.

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REUTERS | Michaela Rehle
August 10, 2016

Working with other people: skills for the new SRA regime

Some early birds have already adopted the new regime, but from 1 November 2016 all solicitors will be required to adhere to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) new approach to continuing competence. This means that, rather than undertaking a random mandatory minimum number of continuing professional development (CPD) hours every year, solicitors will now be required to actually think about and plan purposefully for what they personally need to do, in terms of learning and development activities, to maintain or reach the necessary skill levels required to perform the roles and tasks required by their particular job, to the standards expected.

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REUTERS | Ricardo Moraes
August 1, 2016

In-house agenda: August 2016

Key themes and developments on the agenda for businesses in August include dealing with the aftermath of the EU referendum result, managing the compliance requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and implementing guidance on the Market Abuse Regulation.

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REUTERS | Stephen Hird
July 15, 2016

EU/US Privacy Shield: a feast for crows

On 12 July 2016, the European Commission adopted an adequacy decision approving the Privacy Shield framework for EU-US personal data transfers in a commercial context.

In principle, this clears the way for cross-border data transfers to US self-certified companies to take place from 1 August 2016, within a framework based on an enhanced version of Safe Harbor that was invalidated in October 2015 following the ECJ decision in the Schrems case.

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REUTERS | Esam Al-Fetori
July 11, 2016

In-house round-up: Summer 2016

This round-up summarises the developments that generated the most interest from in-house lawyers in the past three months, including Brexit, the formal approval of the General Data Protection Regulation, the implementation of the Market Abuse Regulation, the anti-corruption summit, the first compensation order for workers kept in modern slavery, and a number of interesting commercial contracts cases.

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