Disputes Yearbook: Foreword – Stewarts: Groundhog Day?

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Disputes Yearbook: Foreword – Stewarts: Groundhog Day?

A quick scan of the inevitable January opinion pieces predicting trends in the litigation market for the year ahead gives a fairly consistent view of topics we are likely to see. Against a backdrop of continued economic and geopolitical instability, ongoing inflation, high interest rates and supply chain disruption, commentators foresee an increase in insolvency-related litigation and disputes resulting from pressure on commercial contracts. The same factors are likely to increase loan defaults and distressed debt claims. In addition, frauds inevitably emerge in the wake of failing businesses.

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Two themes in arbitration cases before the English courts: state parties and the nature and extent of the court’s pro-arbitration approach

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Two themes in arbitration cases before the English courts: state parties and the nature and extent of the court’s pro-arbitration approach

Stewarts on some recent developments in arbitration in the UK

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Lead partner: 2024 will be a year of change in the UK. The question is, how much?

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Lead partner: 2024 will be a year of change in the UK. The question is, how much?

Do you have a crystal ball? If you do, then perhaps you can share the outcome of the UK election in 2024. Which election pledges are going to have most impact on private wealth professionals and their clients? Or perhaps you’re reading this in May or November, know who has won and are busy planning around any changes.

At the time of going to press, when it comes to wealth and taxation, there are known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns, to paraphrase former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
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Lead partner: The year the United Kingdom becomes a globally leading life sciences hub?

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Lead partner: The year the United Kingdom becomes a globally leading life sciences hub?

As part of its ambition for the United Kingdom to become a tech and science superpower by 2030, in 2023, the government announced a range of initiatives aimed at boosting investment and innovation in the life sciences sector. Innovators will have welcomed the R&D tax relief reforms whilst the Mansion House Compact (the largest UK pension providers committing 5% of their assets to unlisted equities by 2030) announced in July has provided some hope of alternative pools of capital to unlisted UK life sciences companies.

Whilst the impact of those initiatives remains to be seen (and of course with a general election looming) the UK life sciences industry is being positioned to play an integral part in the growth of the country’s economy with many recent legal and regulatory developments also seeking to enhance the attractiveness of the UK as a leading life sciences hub. The UK’s offer to prospective investors will be centred around access to innovation, the financial firepower of the City, the introduction of progressive and pragmatic regulation and a robust advisory ecosystem, which it hopes will allow it to differentiate itself from the EU.
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