Over the past year, the appetite to make changes to the Scottish civil justice system has increased, particularly in the case of mediation. Although at an early stage, there are various legislative reforms being proposed that give mediation a more prominent position in all civil litigation matters. But what exactly are these proposed changes, and …
Continue reading “The future of mediation in Scottish civil justice”
Two-key principle The opportunity to appoint two or more directors in a company, who exercise their authority jointly or severally, has been available in many foreign jurisdictions for a long time. However, until 2014 Russian law stuck to the approach that only one person may hold the position of CEO and be indicated as CEO …
Continue reading “Corporate governance in Russia: the two-key principle and director liability”
Recent case law has shown that bad faith is a continually evolving concept whose assessment can lead either to the cancellation or to the transfer of trade mark applications registered in bad faith. In 2019, French courts notably cancelled important French trade marks such as ‘Vente-privee‘ and ‘Laguiole‘ on the basis of their applicant’s bad …
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In Mexico, corporate governance best practices have been part of the business environment for the last 20 years. Since 1999, following the OECD Principles (which in turn used the recommendations of the Cadbury Report to varying degrees), the first voluntary Mexican Best Corporate Practices Code (CMPC), issued by the Mexican Business Co-ordinator Council was published. …
The spread of criminal and regulatory laws into the corporate world has been underscored by a string of cases in the US and, more recently, the UK sparked by M&A activity. As a result, our transatlantic white collar crime defence and investigations group has seen an uptick in advising buyers and sellers on corporate transactions …
Continue reading “2020 vision: minimising financial crime risk in US/UK M&A”
It’s not often a FTSE 100 GC and a law firm offer themselves up to the media to discuss a deal. Even panel review stories rarely elicit comment beyond a few contrived lines about ‘innovation’, ‘alignment’ and ‘deeper relationships’. So when BT legal chief Sabine Chalmers and DWF arranged conference calls in the summer to …
Continue reading “Outsourcing legal teams – Will it ever be more than flavour of the month?”
In 2015 Denmark’s image as one of the world’s least corrupt nations came under scrutiny as Atea A/S, the Danish subsidiary of the Norwegian IT supplier Atea ASA, came under investigation for bribing several public officials employed in IT departments of various Danish public authorities, including the national police and the regional authority, Region Zealand. …
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National Grid drops three from panel BDB Pitmans, Irwin Mitchell and Norton Rose Fulbright have been dropped from National Grid’s panel, understood to be worth about £12m a year in the UK. Womble Bond Dickinson is the sole new appointee on a roster that reduced the number of advisers from 12 to ten. Addleshaw Goddard, …
Money laundering represents one of the key challenges in the fight against serious crime, especially considering its stealth nature as well as its cross-border dimension. There is an underlying link between money laundering and other crimes, such as corruption offences, human trafficking, drug trafficking or the financing of terrorism. One of the most significant and …
Continue reading “The ultimate beneficial owner – the Achilles heel of money laundering?”
‘One reason I’m doing this interview is so I can send it to my parents. They’re really important to me. Ah, suddenly, the hard-woman persona crumbles,’ jokes Heather Mitchell, global general counsel (GC) for investments and head of EMEA at The Carlyle Group.
Quotes: ‘Money laundering is for drug dealers and terrorists. We do not have any exposure’; ‘We have never checked against AML lists. Competitors don’t do it. Why would we?’; ‘Lawyers just don’t understand business. That’s just scare tactics’; ‘Yeah, we do have compliance. They don’t generate any revenue’; ‘We here in compliance can preach. But …
Continue reading “Straight talk: criminal defence and compliance in AML cases”
The In-House Lawyer (IHL): Eighteen months in the group general counsel role, what have been some of the key projects you’ve been doing since you landed? The wider business has been through a lot of transformation, how is legal keeping up? Sabine Chalmers (SC), group GC, BT: When I joined Gavin Patterson was my boss. …