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Legalease Research Services: Held to account

The team at BT Legal has spent the past three years changing the way it deals with external lawyers and manages its own lawyers. Most recently, it has brought in a new e-billing platform, MyLegal, which has overhauled how it manages legal spend.

David Griffin, head of legal and governance systems and change at BT, says the company wanted to move away from the smoke-and-mirrors approach to billing from some law firms, introducing more accountability and transparency to how matters are managed. Hopefully, this will mean the team can catch problems early and avoid getting unexpectedly large bills from their external counsel. Continue reading “Legalease Research Services: Held to account”

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Sponsored briefing: ESG, the regulatory battle is coming. Are the legal finance teams truly ready?

As the COP26 continues its doings, one of the talks of town in the legal finance world this autumn is that about sustainability. Newspapers open up with announcements about investment funds gone green, social or sustainable, about private equity firms deciding to raise new funds to exclusively invest into climate-related issues, and about companies and firms setting up new cross-border strategies aimed at complying with ESG – environmental, social and governance – objectives. Consulting firms are issuing longest-ever reports about their ESG compromises and their commitment towards UN sustainable development goals. Legal and services firms are setting up cross-industry teams aimed to cope with the various deeds the market is looking at and will request, it seems, quite immediately. And yet behind all this, how will the legal finance world be affected? Do we need to change and adapt? True to sceptics, we have been doing renewable and green deals for many years, so what is the difference?

We can split this modern ESG thinking in at least two initial settings: looking inwardly towards our firms and institutions, to see what we need to adjust internally to progress towards ESG objectives, for the people in our firms, for the society we live in and for everybody’s future. It is not so much the legal services we can provide to our clients, but rather our commitment towards our own people and the societies we live in, towards the next generations and the planet. And looking outwardly, to see how we can, or need, to adjust our legal advice to the new requirements of private equity houses, banks and other financial institutions. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: ESG, the regulatory battle is coming. Are the legal finance teams truly ready?”

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Iberia focus: Banking on Success

Announced more than a year ago, the largest merger in the Spanish banking sector for some time became a reality in early 2021. The Spanish competition authority cleared CaixaBank’s acquisition of state-owned financial entity Bankia – which was bailed out during the country’s banking crisis in 2012 – at Phase I, subject to conditions. This transaction is a merger between the third and the fourth largest banks in Spain, with €623.8bn in assets.

The new entity is expected to dominate the Spanish market, especially in retail banking. As executive chair José Ignacio Goirigolzarri said when the deal was confirmed: ‘The merger between CaixaBank and Bankia marks a milestone in the history of the Spanish financial system. We face this challenge from a position of strength that allows us to be an active part of the solution to the current crisis, as well as to become an important stakeholder for the socio-economic recovery of our country’. Continue reading “Iberia focus: Banking on Success”

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Sponsored briefing: Compliance in Switzerland and abroad: Tackling corruption and white-collar crime

Fabian Teichmann and Marie-Christin Falker on how multinational corporations operating in Switzerland can improve their compliance regimes

Clients from all over the globe appreciate the security and stability of Switzerland as one of central Europe’s economic and financial powerhouses. This makes Switzerland a designated safe haven for multinational corporations, entrepreneurs, and wealthy individuals alike. On top of that, Switzerland offers advantageous taxation regimes and privacy. Unlike most other countries, Switzerland places great value on its longstanding tradition of banking secrecy. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Compliance in Switzerland and abroad: Tackling corruption and white-collar crime”

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Sponsored practice area spotlight: Dispute resolution – Strategic case management with legal acumen

Prager Dreifuss

State court litigation and private arbitration proceedings require practitioners to combine legal thoroughness and the management of evidence with strategic ingenuity. Understanding court processes, legal practice and tactical procedural advantages all add up to sound advice in contentious legal matters.

Dispute resolution in all its appearances enjoys a long standing tradition at PRAGER DREIFUSS. Our attorneys represent parties before local state courts as well as administrative authorities. Debt collection and bankruptcy matters are strong areas of our practice, in particular in disputes involving foreign parties. International arbitration has attained special significance in our firm and a number of our attorneys are regularly appointed as arbitrators in institutional and ad-hoc arbitration tribunals. Continue reading “Sponsored practice area spotlight: Dispute resolution – Strategic case management with legal acumen”

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Sponsored briefing: Data Governance Law. Is Europe getting enough out of data?

Uria Menendez

When trying to coin a definition of today’s economy, many are inclined to refer to one driven by data (the data-driven economy). As a region, the European Union considers data to be an essential resource for its economic growth, competitiveness, innovation, job creation and the general progress of society. This begs the question: is Europe getting enough out of data?

The volume of data – both personal and non-personal – that citizens, private entities and public bodies generate and collect is enormous and continues to grow exponentially as emerging technologies continue to expand. The EU’s diagnosis, however, is that data’s potential – as an asset – is not exploited enough. Data could be used to innovate, research and make new technologies more efficient. To close this gap and boost Europe’s competitiveness and digital transformation, data must be exploited more efficiently and securely in a consistent way across the EU. To this end, data should be available to be exchanged and re-used for lawful purposes, such as research or innovation. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Data Governance Law. Is Europe getting enough out of data?”

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The Client profile: Sarah Holford, Scania UK

Shortly after completing the Legal Practice Course, Sarah Holford was looking for somewhere to kick-start her career. An opportunity presented itself at Games Workshop, the British manufacturer of miniature wargames, with space-themed Warhammer 40,000 among its best-known products.

‘I’m not a hobbyist but I am a big sci-fi and fantasy geek, so I knew of them. When I saw the role, I thought “yeah, I can go for this,”’ Sarah reminisces. ‘I have a lot of friends that are into Warhammer, gaming and Dungeons & Dragons, so seeing the role I knew it would be a cool place to work.’

Continue reading “The Client profile: Sarah Holford, Scania UK”

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Sponsored briefing: Iberia and the Covid-19 aftermath

Portugal and Spain are now in the Covid-19 aftermath. Both countries have an important percentage of their population fully vaccinated and normal life is coming back. Local inhabitants are resuming their day-to-day activities each time with fewer restrictions and tourists are arriving in greater figures. Airports and streets have more people.

As a consequence. economic activity is increasing and many projects that were left aside are being resumed. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Iberia and the Covid-19 aftermath”

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Global 100 overview: Beasts of burden

In Legal Business’ last Global 100 issue, as firms enjoyed financial years almost entirely untainted by the economic chaos wrought by Covid-19, we said the strain would start to show in this year’s report. It meant last year’s results were all the more important, as they would be the platform upon which Global 100 firms would face their worst economic crisis in over a decade.

We added that across key metrics, the global elite had reason to be optimistic – gross revenue was up 5% to $119.72bn – but the dent many saw to their profitability was only anticipated to get worse, as average profit per equity partner (PEP) at a Global 100 firm shrank 4% to $1.8m across 2019/20. Continue reading “Global 100 overview: Beasts of burden”

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Sponsored briefing: Fraud and asset recovery in the Cayman Islands

Frauds, especially those of a complex nature, often have an international or multi-jurisdictional component. Given the status of the Cayman Islands as one of the leading financial and banking centres in the world, the use of Cayman Islands based financial institutions and corporate entities has featured in some of the worlds largest frauds including the Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme, 1MDB scandal and the approximate $126bn Ponzi Scheme involving Ahmad Hamad al-Gosaibi & Brothers and the Saad Group.

Fortunately, there are a number of tools in our toolkit in the Cayman Islands to combat complex and cross-border fraud and assist in asset recovery, including discovery, document, and asset preservation mechanisms such as freezing injunctions, insolvency proceedings, and Norwich Pharmacal, Anton Piller, and Bankers Trust orders; as well as the ability to recognise and provide assistance to foreign courts and officeholders. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Fraud and asset recovery in the Cayman Islands”

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Sponsored briefing: Ship arrest, maritime liens and ship mortgages in the UAE

While the subjects of maritime liens and ship arrest are areas of divergent approaches by different legal systems, they are also persistent areas of controversy when the two subjects are to receive simultaneous treatment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This paper seeks to discuss the possibility for a creditor to arrest and enforce a contractually agreed maritime lien over a ship in the UAE jurisdiction.

Relevant to our following discussion is that the UAE has yet to ratify any of the major international maritime conventions related to maritime liens, mortgages, and arrest of ships, which aim to establish certain uniformity within different legal systems that would reconcile the divergent approaches, such as the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to Maritime Liens and Mortgages of 1967, the International Convention on Maritime Liens and Mortgages of 1993 and the International Convention on Arrest of Ships of 1999. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Ship arrest, maritime liens and ship mortgages in the UAE”

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Braced for impact: GCs on the threat of group actions and collective redress

In April, Legal Business spoke to dozens of disputes counsel in private practice to ascertain the salient trends in contentious law. Near-universally, at the forefront of minds was an imminent and drastic increase in the volume of class actions and other group claims. Now, the in-house community has added its own wave of concerned voices.

A perfect storm of legal changes and market conditions have brought us to this point. In the UK for example, the seeds were planted in 2015 with the introduction of the Consumer Rights Act, which allowed UK consumers to seek collective redress on competition cases in a US-style class action system. Since then several class action claims have formed, among the most notable being the mammoth truck cartel case, in which thousands of individual and corporate claimants are pursuing damages from several of Europe’s biggest truck manufacturers over price collusion spanning multiple years. Continue reading “Braced for impact: GCs on the threat of group actions and collective redress”

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Sponsored briefing: New consolidated regime of early access in France

On 14 December 2020, the French Social Security Financing Act for 20211 (article 78) reformed early market access mechanisms in France and simplified the former systems of derogatory reimbursement for medicines, which included the temporary authorisation for use (ATU) and temporary recommendation for use (RTU) regimes.

Two new regimes have been created: early access authorisation (AAP – exceptional use of certain drugs for specific therapeutic indications, intended to treat serious, rare, or disabling diseases) and compassionate use (exceptional use of certain medicines in specific therapeutic indications). Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: New consolidated regime of early access in France”

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The ESG debate: Balancing growth and risk

As part of an ongoing series of thought leadership roundtables and webinars we have been hosting with Paul Hastings before, during and after lockdown, we were delighted to finally have an in-person debate at Paul Hastings’ London office in November. We gathered together leading general counsel (GCs) and Paul Hastings partners to discuss the role the legal team within corporates plays in advising the board on major risks – particularly environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns – without stifling healthy growth.

The session examined how businesses are facing a significant number of challenges and opportunities, and the senior in-house counsel present discussed some of the specific challenges they are facing, including re-aligning to e-commerce, re-establishing supply chains, taking advantage of excess liquidity to drive strategic M&A, responding to new ESG demands from investors and stakeholders and responding to an evolving legal and regulatory landscape. Continue reading “The ESG debate: Balancing growth and risk”