While passing through immigration control on my last visit to the United States, I was asked the usual question: “Are you travelling for business or pleasure?” “Business”, I answered, “I’m speaking at a conference.” “What are you speaking about?” queried the immigration officer. “Well”, I answered, frantically trying to condense into a nutshell the content of my next three days’ workshops, “I’m trying to teach lawyers to be less like lawyers and more like real people.”
A recent High Court decision has provided reassurance to both lawyers and clients as to the scope of legal advice privilege (LAP), after an earlier decision (by a different judge) in the same case had arguably suggested a narrower scope for LAP than had been generally accepted.
The Indian government, in consultation with the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the Society of Indian Lawyers (SILF) has given its go-ahead to a proposal allowing foreign law firms to enter India on a reciprocal basis. This marks a significant shift in the government’s policy towards the issue of liberalisation of the legal services sector in India, which has so far been virtually closed to outsiders. At present, foreign lawyers face stringent restrictions on operating within India.
In Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi and ParkingEye Limited v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67 (see Legal update, Supreme Court restates penalty rule), the Supreme Court gave its first judgment on contractual penalty clauses in 100 years.
In the widely reported case of Ramphal v Department for Transport UKEAT/0352/14 (see Legal update, Disciplinary investigation heavily influenced by HR led to unfair dismissal), the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) upheld a finding of unfair dismissal due to the inappropriate level of interference in the dismissal process by an HR manager. The EAT’s judgment included a table showing the extent of changes made to various drafts of an investigation report, many at the suggestion of HR.
In many ways, the outcome of the case was unsurprising. It does not set out new principles of law or break any new ground. However, the issues covered are particularly relevant to those working in-house, given the close relationships that often develop between HR and Legal.
I recently attended the GC Leadership Series leading small and medium legal teams forum 2015.
Dominic Bacon, Managing director of Squaring the Circle, one of the presenters of the first session of the day, remarked that a GC of an SME can be a very lonely role. However, by the end of the day, I couldn’t help but feel that perhaps it didn’t have to be quite so lonely. The day was filled with great advice from the presenters and thoughtful interaction from the participants; there was much camaraderie and support all around.
The REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) regime regulates chemicals in the EU.
Under REACH, the burden of proof is on industry to demonstrate that the use of a chemical on its own, in preparations or in articles, does not pose unacceptable risks to human health or the environment. As a result, compliance under REACH has significant cost implications for manufacturers, importers and downstream users of a wide range of chemicals, including those used in industrial, commercial and household applications and products.
The long awaited ECJ’s judgment in Maximillian Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner (Case C‑362/14) declared the EU-US Safe Harbor framework (set out in Decision 2000/520 on the adequacy of the protection provided by the safe harbor privacy principles and related frequently asked questions issued by the US Department of Commerce invalid for failing to ensure adequate protection for data transferred from the EU to the US as required by the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC). Continue reading
Recently, I participated in Practical Law’s breakfast workshop, The non-legal and leadership skills needed to progress internally. This workshop is part of the GC Leadership series and was led by Marsha Aldridge (Head of Legal at FitFlop), Keith Krasny (Director of Mindflint Ltd) and Erik D. Lazar (Director and founder of Transatlantic Law International).
Chris Fowler, General Counsel UK Commercial of BT Legal, speaks about transforming BT Legal’s approach to delivering legal services. Continue reading