The legal industry is still fragmenting. Pre-2008 it was an easier game: a buoyant economy, predictable government and a converging world flattened by globalisation and the internet. Law firms sought to be ‘global’ and ‘full-service’ and merged or opened offices accordingly. The business model was simple: bigger clients, bigger teams, higher utilisation, higher rates. Hold …
In recent years, financial crime prosecutors have sought to encourage companies to establish compliance programmes designed to avoid – or at least detect – illegal conduct, by including the requirement as a precondition to their securing a reduced penalty, or other form of leniency, following a compliance incident. In responding to those incentives by implementing …
Continue reading “Compliance programmes and the protection of legal privilege”
The In-House Lawyer (IHL): Can you describe your career path so far and tell us a little bit about your current role at GSK?
Ahmed Badr did not want to be a lawyer. A self-professed ‘huge geek’ at school, he was never happier than when sat a computer doing some programming or web design. ‘You would never find me playing football,’ he reflects.
New role for Booth at Crown Estate Rob Booth, one of the leading lights of the in-house legal community, will be stepping away from his position as general counsel and company secretary at The Crown Estate to become the company’s new head of assets.
New Law is as a breed still a lot better at promise than delivery, particularly on claims of providing better value than law firms.
Despite Covid-19 remaining a global concern at the time of this article, much of Hong Kong has in fact returned to its pre-pandemic hustle and bustle for quite a while. However, the pandemic has left an imprint on the city – apart from making face masks a must-have when going out, as there seems to …
Continue reading “Post Covid-19 Hong Kong: a new kind of ‘business as usual’?”
The Covid-19 pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge to the global economy. A lot of businesses ran into severe difficulty and even went on the verge of bankruptcy. Many employers cut employment directly by terminating employment contracts with employees instead of reducing salaries or arranging for employees to await job assignments to reduce labour costs. …
Over the last couple of years, organisations have been working through a significant transformation journey in the way they work and operate. Automation and technology are replacing or significantly impacting human tasks and jobs, changing the skills that organisations require in their workforce. At the same time, workforces are demanding a new ‘deal’, with organisations …
Continue reading “The workforce of the future: key HR legal considerations”
After a few video calls, it takes only a cursory kick of the tyres to discern that employment lawyers have had a crazy year. ‘Crazy’ almost does not cover it – you would be hard pressed to identify an area of law that experienced more change in the last year, in both the rate of …