easyJet flies off with Legal Business Awards

The Legal Business Awards, held at Grosvenor House on 30 September, provided the perfect backdrop to honour the leading lights of the in-house legal community from the last year. Taking the top prize of GC of the Year was easyJet’s legal chief Maaike de Bie (pictured), recognised for piloting the company successfully as the aviation sector was ravaged by the pandemic and responding robustly to a sophisticated cyber-attack. Highly commended in this category was Emily Reichwald, general counsel of Dr Martens.

Continue reading “Significant matters – Autumn 2021”

According to Sandy Bhogal, co-chair of Gibson Dunn’s global tax practice, ‘General counsel will probably be more involved in tax affairs now than they’ve ever been’. With this in mind, he identifies three major trends in corporate tax that will keep lawyers busy for the foreseeable future: the knock on impact of the pandemic to tax policy, the general trend towards international governmental co-operation initiatives and the increasingly sophisticated and prominent way in which tax is covered in the media, leading corporates to view tax as an ESG issue. Continue reading “Out of the shadows”

A cursory glance at The Legal 500’s IP coverage – which was recently split into a distinct patents table alongside a trade marks, copyright and design table – makes for a head-scratching read. In a legal discipline that attracts sophisticated, technical expertise, fortune favours the innovative as much as the who’s who of the City elite, or indeed the prestigious US names that are continually encroaching on London territory in the corporate space. Continue reading “Validity in the opposition”

It was the football story of the year – eclipsing even Lionel Messi’s move to PSG and football not quite coming home – almost beyond belief in its audacity. On Sunday 18 April, The Times broke a story that 12 leading clubs from England, Spain and Italy had agreed to break away from UEFA’s Champions League competition and launch their own independent format: The European Super League (ESL). Continue reading “Caught offside”

The In-House Lawyer (IHL): What has been keeping you busy in banking litigation over the past 12 months? Continue reading “Banking on battles”

The Lithuanian court system consists of courts of general jurisdiction and specialised courts.

Continue reading “General overview of the Lithuanian court system”

While an agreement to settle disputes through arbitration means that the parties have contracted to have their dispute resolved away from the Courts, an aggrieved party can still (in limited circumstances) challenge an arbitral award in Court. Continue reading “Challenging arbitral awards before the Hong Kong courts”

Following 18 months dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic, banks like other businesses might have hoped for some respite. Instead, as we come out of the pandemic banks continue to face a wide and growing range of risks which may well result in the busiest period for banking litigation since the financial crisis. This will likely be combined with increased regulatory activity: the FCA has made clear that it intends to adopt a more assertive approach to enforcement, as well as prioritising customer welfare by introducing a Consumer Duty for financial institutions. We summarise below some of the major trends and risks in this space. Continue reading “What to watch – top trends and risks in banking litigation”

In recent years it has become more and more common for service providers in Cyprus, acting either as nominee directors, nominee shareholders or trustees of clients, to be the recipients of applications for the issue of disclosure orders against them in aid of foreign proceedings that are pending or will be initiated in the future against their clients. Continue reading “Norwich Pharmacal Orders against service providers in Cyprus in aid of execution of a judgment issued abroad – recent court judgment provides guidance”

Conventional wisdom tells us there is ‘power in numbers’, but that is not always true in litigation. While class actions are a powerful tool – particularly where damages to each injured party are relatively small – they can also be cumbersome. Class-action proceedings can take years to wind themselves through United States courts. The cases are expensive. And courts have made it more difficult to obtain class certification in recent years. Continue reading “I want to break free: opting out of class litigation”