Pearson revisits adviser panel Pearson has elected to consolidate its legal adviser panels into new ‘general’ and ‘preferred’ rosters, moving away from specialised panels in a bid to reduce costs. Fourteen firms have won places on the preferred panel, which Pearson says will address ‘day-to-day requirements’, in addition to newer areas not historically covered by …
The asymmetric approach King Pyrrhus of Epirus famously said: ‘If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.’ He was talking in 279 BC about the large number of soldiers he had lost in the battle of Asculum, but today he could just as easily have been referring to …
Third-party litigation and arbitration funding is increasingly more prevalent, as a result of it being embraced by a greater number of jurisdictions and the funders themselves having raised a vast amount of money to invest in claims. Third-party funding can benefit both under-resourced growing businesses as well as established and profitable companies, allowing them to …
Technology is at the heart of the legal sector’s current, well-publicised drive for innovation. With the demands placed on in-house legal teams increasing, and legal budgets trending downwards, the pressure on outside counsel to provide genuine value to their corporate clients has never been greater.
A recent judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) sent shockwaves through the investment treaty community and is likely to have far-reaching consequences for European investments. Investors have long relied on investment protections contained in international investment agreements such as the more than 2,000 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) between countries across …
Continue reading “Recent trends: investment arbitration, financial sanctions and litigation”
Leading a global legal team is a complex role and many general counsel could be forgiven for spending all their energy just trying to get the job done. Not so at Michelin. Despite overseeing a legal community of 200 members, comprising lawyers, patent engineers, paralegals and admin staff, spread across 20 countries, group GC Benoit …
It may surprise some that raising and running court actions to a conclusion before a judge is only part of the overall picture in most large dispute teams. Dispute resolution is an area which covers many topics – at Brodies alone, more than 130 people work on delivering solutions for a diverse client base. Indeed …
Continue reading “Speed of thought and action – the key to dispute resolution”
Retail and insolvency The increasing popularity of online shopping has resulted in a decline of footfall on the high street and rising business rates, wages and pension costs have resulted in a tough trading environment. With well-known retailers such as Toys R Us, Prezzo, Carpetright, New Look, Mothercare, House of Fraser and recently Homebase all …
From 1 January 2019, a mandatory pilot scheme will operate in the Business and Property Courts across England and Wales, ushering in a new era of disclosure management in civil litigation. Walker Morris’ head of commercial dispute resolution, Gwendoline Davies, and senior associate and professional support lawyer, Amanda Kent, consider the changes and what they …
Continue reading “Disclosure in civil litigation: All change please, all change!”
‘A good general counsel should do three things,’ says National Grid’s Alison Kay: ‘Manage the legal requirements of the business, manage their people and manage their budget.’ But as managing the legal requirements of a large business becomes more time consuming, GCs are increasingly finding it difficult to pay adequate attention to costs and staff.
On 5 September 2018, the Court of Appeal re-enforced privilege as a cornerstone of a company’s protections in relation to internal investigations in The Director of the Serious Fraud Office v Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation. This article considers the case and its practical implications, including continuing limitations on privilege and the pitfalls to avoid. The …
Continue reading “SFO v ENRC – a victory for privilege but just how far does it go?”
The Polish have a somewhat colourful way of saying that something is not their problem – ‘not my circus, not my monkey’. Leaving private practice may well feel like you have escaped a zoo, but after a few days of taking over as in-house counsel it becomes increasingly clear that it is in fact your …