Posted on

Sponsored briefing: The value of forensic accountants in investigations

Grant Thornton UK

Kevin Shergold draws inspiration from the art world to explain the role of forensic accountants

In the art world, spotting the difference between an authentic masterpiece and an impeccably forged fake can often hinge on the minutest of details

Renowned forensic art analyst, John Martin, has saved (and ruined) many art owners dreams by confirming or denying the authenticity of highly valued artworks. A 1965 Rothko he examined was deemed a fake due to a layer of white paint between the canvas and the oils. During the period in question, Rothko had used a transparent layer. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The value of forensic accountants in investigations”

Posted on

Sponsored briefing: Post-Brexit prospects: London as a dispute resolution centre

Brown Rudnick

Neill Shrimpton and Jessica Lee discuss the impact of Brexit on London as a dispute resolution centre

Over a year on since the UK formally withdrew from the EU on 31 January 2020, speculation continues as to the prospects of London remaining a key dispute resolution centre post-Brexit. The adverse impact of Brexit is already being felt in the UK financial markets after January 2021 saw the Amsterdam Stock Exchange displace the London Stock Exchange in terms of trading volume per day. However, it remains to be seen whether the uncertainty persisting post-Brexit with respect to issues such as the enforceability of English judgments in the EU will outweigh the favour historically given by contracting parties in choosing to apply English law to their contracts and to litigating their disputes in the English courts. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Post-Brexit prospects: London as a dispute resolution centre”

Posted on

Sponsored briefing: Lebanon’s dispute resolution system

Obeid Law Firm gives an overview on the Lebanese dispute resolution and banking systems in times of crisis

Section one: overview on the Lebanese dispute resolution system in times of crisis

A. Litigation

Lebanon has a civil law legal system and, thus, follows the inquisitorial model. The legal process is conducted primarily through written submissions.

The courts in Lebanon are divided into two parts – the judicial courts (those dealing with criminal and civil laws), and the courts dealing with administrative matters. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Lebanon’s dispute resolution system”

Posted on

Sponsored briefing: A guide to white-collar offences: industrial property in Mexico

Basham, Ringe y Correa

Partners Francisco Tiburcio, Alejandro Catalá and Gilberto Valle analyse the latest legislative crackdowns on Mexican property fraud

Enforcement of intellectual property rights in Mexico has always been subject of concern by the title owners as well as of the international community. Therefore, the legal framework of the intellectual property system, linked with the rule of law and the criminal law system in our country, has been and is a priority. Consequently, in different Free Trade Agreements (FTA) our country has negotiated, an intellectual property and enforcement of rights chapter has been fundamental. Mexico now is part, among others, of the A) Transpacific Partnership Agreement 2018 (TPP), B) FTA with the United States and Canada (USMCA) 2020 and C) the European Union (TLCUEM), pending ratification at Congress. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: A guide to white-collar offences: industrial property in Mexico”

Posted on

Disputes Yearbook – online PDF

While much of the country works from home we are providing an additional online option for you to access your copy of the Disputes Yearbook 2021. Please see below for a link to an online pdf of the Disputes Yearbook 2021. This will only be accessible to subscribers. Please make sure you are logged into the site to see the link.

Legal Business subscribers will be receiving their physical copies of the Disputes Yearbook with Legal Business circulation.

Continue reading “Disputes Yearbook – online PDF”

Posted on

Sponsored briefing: Court intervention with respect to arbitral awards in Kenya

Oraro’s Chacha Odera, Eva Mukami and Radhika Arora look at the use of arbitration as a form of dispute resolution within Kenya.

Introduction

The use of arbitration as a form of dispute resolution within the Kenyan jurisdiction has been on an upward trajectory for a long time, more so with the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 (the 2010 Constitution). Article 159 of the said Constitution recognises the need for courts and tribunals to promote alternative forms of dispute resolution which includes arbitration, mediation, reconciliation and traditional dispute resolution mechanisms.

Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Court intervention with respect to arbitral awards in Kenya”

Posted on

Sponsored briefing: The difficulties of pursuing foreign insolvency-related claims in Norway

Simonsen Vogt Wiig analyse how foreign insolvency claims can be pursued in Norway and the implications of Brexit on the enforcement of judgments between Norway and the UK

Insolvency-related claims in Norway

Pursuing foreign insolvency-related claims in Norway can be somewhat challenging. Except for the Nordic countries, which will not be discussed in this article, there are currently no rules or treaties governing foreign insolvency-related claims. However, new rules have been adopted and will come into effect from 1 July 2021, that will make this much easier. For bankruptcies from before 1 July 2021 and/or that falls outside the scope of the new rules, insolvency-related claims cannot be pursued in Norway. Thus the question is, what can, or cannot, businesses or bankruptcy estates do if they want to pursue insolvency-related claims against Norwegian companies or in assets situated in Norway, that fall outside the scope of the new rules? The new rules will be discussed at the end of this chapter. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The difficulties of pursuing foreign insolvency-related claims in Norway”

Posted on

Sponsored briefing: The effect of recent English Supreme Court judgments on GCC-based arbitration

Robert Sliwinski, of counsel at Al Suwaidi & Company, explains how common law principles are transforming international arbitration proceedings in the GCC region

Over the past six months there have been two important judgments in the Supreme Court of England and Wales which are likely to influence GCC-based arbitrations where they are based on common law procedures and rules. They may also impact arbitrations seated in the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC), the Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM) and the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) which are pockets of common law jurisdiction within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar Civil Law Structures. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The effect of recent English Supreme Court judgments on GCC-based arbitration”

Posted on

Disputes perspectives: Claire Shaw

I was an incredibly good girl and my mother was incredibly opinionated: I basically did whatever she told me to do! For years I wanted to be a doctor but then I realised I absolutely hated chemistry and you couldn’t be one without chemistry. So I had a crisis after my O-Levels where I thought ‘Oh God what am I going to be then?’ So suddenly my mum said: ‘Right, that’s it then, you’re going to be a lawyer.’ She’s of that generation that absolutely idolised professions – she always called our family doctor by his first name. Continue reading “Disputes perspectives: Claire Shaw”

Posted on

Virtual reality

The health of the English and Welsh court system has long been a cause for genuine concern. Over the last decade, there have been anxieties over the diminishing desirability of a judicial role, not least due to a chronic lack of governmental funding that has resulted in salaries comparatively paltry to private practice positions.

This has been amplified by the introduction of the Judicial Attitudes Survey (JAS), which has given judges the platform to publicly lay out their grievances since 2014. It produced some shocking results. The 2016 edition revealed that nearly half (47%) of High Court judges were considering leaving the judiciary, alongside 41% of Court of Appeal judges and 40% of Circuit judges. A majority of judges (76%), felt they had experienced a deterioration in their working conditions since 2014, with 43% stating that the maintenance of their building was poor. Continue reading “Virtual reality”

Posted on

Disputes perspectives: Gaby Dosanjh-Pahil

I’ve always wanted to be a barrister, since before I can remember. There was no particular event or anything, I just always knew. I must have seen something on TV or the news perhaps. It was easy for me, because once you know what you want to do, it’s easy to follow that path.

I’ve never been an outgoing, loud person. Although I have married my complete opposite! I was the youngest of three children, and a girl with two older brothers, so I was always wrapped up in cotton wool. But I’m quietly confident. Continue reading “Disputes perspectives: Gaby Dosanjh-Pahil”

Posted on

Disputes perspectives: Tony Singla QC

I’m the youngest of three children. My brother and sister both read law at university, and have become lawyers themselves. My sister is a general counsel, and my brother is a silk. They’re both older than me, and when it came to applying to university, there wasn’t much choice on my part! I benefited a lot from their revision notes…

I briefly contemplated a career in the City, and I did an internship at Goldman Sachs in 2005. It was useful in the sense that it confirmed that I did want to pursue a career in the law. Continue reading “Disputes perspectives: Tony Singla QC”

Posted on

Disputes perspectives: Tracey Dovaston

I’d like to say becoming a lawyer was a very well-thought-out decision in my teenage years, but it wasn’t. I recall taking a career aptitude test at school, and it was one of the few professions I’d actually heard of. Law sounded interesting, and I’ve always enjoyed the legal wrangling in various TV shows. Showing my age, it included the less esoteric ones at the time, like LA Law in the late 80s and early 90s.

I picked Herbert Smith. I applied to a number of places, but I had heard partner Lawrence Collins, now Lord Collins of Mapesbury, speak at a careers event at university. Herbert Smith was well-known as a preeminent litigation firm and so I thought that was where I wanted to go. I wrote to him directly. I didn’t think it would make any difference, but it did. When I started, I was a trainee in his litigation department. I had an opportunity to work with him first hand, and he supported me in the early stages of my career. Continue reading “Disputes perspectives: Tracey Dovaston”

Posted on

Sponsored foreword: Litigation amid a pandemic – 2021 and beyond

Clive Zietman

One of the strangest features of Covid-19 is that it manifests itself in the human body in a random and unpredictable manner. The same can be said of its effect on the world of commercial disputes. My view is that nothing ever quite pans out in a way many commentators assume.

If one thinks back to the financial crisis of 2008, the only racing certainty was an economic downtown. To that extent, the same might be said of 2021. The prediction 13 years ago was that we would see the usual raft of fraud and insolvency work that typically accompanies a recession. It was anticipated that events would mirror those of the early 1990s, which gave rise to a boom in white collar crime cases and resultant professional negligence claims arising from corporate failures. It did not play out in that way. The scale of the frauds made them almost beyond the scope of litigation. The banks did not rush to insolvency proceedings since they themselves were on the brink of collapse and had no appetite for repossessing worthless assets. Continue reading “Sponsored foreword: Litigation amid a pandemic – 2021 and beyond”

Posted on

Hot topics

SFO in the spotlight once again after stuttering investigations

Now a few years into the Lisa Osofsky era of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the jury is still out on the agency’s performance.

There have been successes: white-collar crime lawyers agree that the SFO’s near-€1bn deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with Airbus in January 2020 was a solid achievement, with Stewarts’ fraud partner David Savage praising the international co-operation involved in securing the plea deal. Continue reading “Hot topics”

Posted on

UK’s robust disputes framework holds firm amid the crisis

I have always very much enjoyed talking to the City’s disputes practitioners, and after two years away from covering my beat, I was curious to know what had changed. The answer: everything and nothing.

True, face-to-face meetings and the whistle-stop tours of London’s leading disputes practices have been replaced by Zoom and Teams. It seems that even the most momentous of disputes last year were fought and adjudicated by very intelligent people wearing very comfortable clothing; long may that continue. Continue reading “UK’s robust disputes framework holds firm amid the crisis”

Posted on

Sponsored briefing: The antitrust challenge to Big Tech

MoloLamken

Eric Posner discusses the US antitrust law challenges for Big Tech companies

After a long period of stagnation, United States antitrust law has experienced a jolt of adrenaline, thanks in large part to public anxiety about the enormous economic and cultural power of Big Tech. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (which owns Google), and Facebook are the five largest companies in the US by market capitalisation. All of these firms are ubiquitous presences in people’s lives. And all of them (except Microsoft, which has tended its operating system monopoly but not tried to extend it) have been subject to a torrent of criticism about their allegedly anticompetitive practices, now the subject of a spate of lawsuits by the US government, the state governments, and private parties. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The antitrust challenge to Big Tech”

Posted on

Sponsored briefing: Prosecuting corporations in Romania

Ovidiu Budusan discusses corporate prosecutions in Romania

As early as 2006, the Romanian legislators adopted the view that, similar to individuals, corporations have a distinct, if collective state of mind that is similarly capable of committing crimes, and regulated the criminal liability of corporations. Since then, corporate prosecutions are nothing new to the country, but remain a matter of controversy, as the metaphorical gun is held by the government to the head of businesses, shareholders, board members, CEOs, CFOs – and the list of acronyms may go on and on. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Prosecuting corporations in Romania”

Posted on

Sponsored briefing: Civil mediation before litigation

R&T Asia (Thailand) assesses how recent amendments to Thailand’s Civil Procedure Code have impacted litigation practice in the jurisdiction

Thailand has recently enabled a party to a dispute to request in-court civil mediation even before a complaint is filed with the court, with a view to saving time and resources which would otherwise be used in civil proceedings. This new form of civil mediation before litigation became effective on
7 November 2020 and was introduced by way of an amendment to the Civil Procedure Code, which is the law setting out the general procedure for the conduct of civil proceedings in Thailand. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Civil mediation before litigation”