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 …
‘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 …
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 …
‘There’s a palpable sense of innovation in the legal industry,’ says Casey Flaherty, founder of legal technology consultancy Procertas. ‘But then,’ he adds, ‘there always has been.’
You are nearing the end of the discussions for concluding a contract – the obligations and rights are defined, the terms are stipulated and you are making final decisions as to how your contract will be governed. This is vital, for contracting parties are fully aware that deciding on what law will govern the agreement …
In April last year, US-based tech services provider DXC Technology was formed following the merger of The Hewlett-Packard Company’s enterprise division with Computer Sciences Corporation. It was the ideal opportunity for general counsel Bill Deckelman to sit down with senior management and establish what the legal function should look like. ‘To put things simply, it’s …
For general counsel struggling to manage the administrative and regulatory burdens of the role, a head of operations has become the must-have accessory. In the US, the growth of legal ops is demonstrated by statistics.
After the landmark decision by a Chinese court finding reciprocity between China and the US, and recognising and enforcing a US judgment for the first time, there have been heated discussions on whether this case signals a genuine broader trend towards recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in China. The term ‘foreign judgments’ does not …
Nailing the issue of what makes a high-performing in-house function, with the emphasis on operational sophistication, has become the Holy Grail for general counsel.
The main focus of this article is on international arbitration in Kenya. However, we shall take a short glimpse at alternative dispute resolution methods in Kenya in this section. The use of alternative dispute resolution methods is established in the Constitution of Kenya of 2010. As a guiding principle in exercising judicial authority, Article 159(2)(c) …
Technology is dramatically changing the practice of law. Big data, machine learning, smart contracts and artificial intelligence are all making the assimilation and interpretation of large amounts of unstructured data much easier. Some doom-mongers see this as the end of the traditional practice of law. We believe, rather, that the trend will be for legal …
