There is a fundamental tension between the desire for contractual certainty and for agreements to be future proof. Property lawyers know only too well the difficulties associated with the fact neither we or our clients have crystal balls or the ability to time travel. We are regularly asked to look at a contract in a context that you can immediately approach the lawyers drafting the document did not anticipate. Continue reading “Property transactions – the fertiliser for the development of contract law”
Autonomous vehicles: driving change in real estate
Our cities are designed around and defined by roads and vehicles. Autonomous technology will not only change the way we travel, it has the potential to change the face of real estate as we know it. Continue reading “Autonomous vehicles: driving change in real estate”
Corporate real estate – cutting costs without cutting corners
Real estate strategy and how a business occupies premises generate more emotion and irrational opinions than any other strategic or operational issue faced by corporate occupiers.
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Hacked Off in Paradise – privilege and stolen information
Equifax, one of the world’s leading credit rating agencies is hacked. Personal information of individuals is accessed and many of these individuals have not consciously consented to Equifax holding their data, but have no choice in the modern world. No respectable media outlet, if offered this stolen personal data, would publish it.
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The edge of the cliff
For UK business, 2018 will be dominated by one question: when do we push the button on Brexit? Months of scenario planning have given a sense of the possible outcomes, but there is little confidence that a decision will be taken in full possession of the facts.
Northern exposure
Late last year, The In-House Lawyer ventured north of the border to highlight the community of commercial counsel flourishing in Scotland in an extended feature. To follow up, this autumn we teamed up with Addleshaw Goddard to gather a panel of senior general counsel at Edinburgh’s Signet Library in Parliament Square to debate a range of related issues to an audience of over 60 in-house counsel. With Brexit on the agenda, a changing legal profession and Scotland’s economy striving to reinvent itself for an increasingly-globalised age, there was plenty to talk about.
Employment law: Doyle Clayton
A decade ago workplace law was barely on a general counsel’s risk register. Today we see in-house lawyers specialising in it – with a GC expected to be knowledgeable enough to keep a company’s board briefed on any issues that could impact the value of its brand. Weinstein, historical sex abuse charges, the implication of failure to be prepared for GDPR and gender pay are among the issues to have helped thrust the subject firmly into the spotlight, and it’s not going away. Continue reading “Employment law: Doyle Clayton”
Precision instruments
With increasing scrutiny of outside spend, general counsel are under mounting pressure to deliver a smooth-running and more efficient machine, as well as effective legal advice. GCs must therefore fine-tune their teams with a discerning eye for quality and economy. Continue reading “Precision instruments”
On borrowed time
The collapse of film giant Kodak in 2012 is already established to many as the definitive case study of the failure of a business convinced its model would last forever. At its peak, Kodak’s share of the photographic film market was more than 80% in the US and 50% globally. So, when a Kodak employee invented the first digital camera in the 1970s, he was told by the board to keep quiet about it. Denial took hold right up until January 2017 when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Reborn as a tiny, niche player with a few lucrative patents these days, annual profits for Kodak now are around $12m. Continue reading “On borrowed time”
Reversal of fortunes
It is dominated by mid-sized firms while global players and City leaders lag far behind. Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) sits in the third spot. You must scroll down nearly 40 positions before finding the likes of Linklaters and Clifford Chance.
The power of the ordinary
The growth in regulation has made compliance part of business as usual for companies and most in-house legal departments are fully occupied with the day to day.
Five things general counsel should know about litigation finance
Litigation finance is becoming an increasingly important part of the commercial litigation landscape: according to the 2017 Litigation Finance Survey conducted by Burford Capital, the number of lawyers in the US who said their firms had used litigation finance has risen 414% since 2013. Over half (54%) of UK lawyers who have not yet used litigation finance expect to do so within two years.
Continue reading “Five things general counsel should know about litigation finance”