Simon Kerry asks whether front loading case management is effective in resolving cases and looks at the forthcoming Disclosure Pilot
In recent years, reforms of the Civil Procedure Rules have focused on ‘front loading’ case management. In particular, for larger and more complex cases, planning phases have been established to set parameters within which the case will be conducted. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The full-frontal approach”
Marcia Shekerdemian QC considers the decisions in Ve Vegas v Shinners and Zinc Hotels v Beveridge
‘An insolvency practitioner should not allow bias, conflict of interest or undue influence of others to override professional or business judgments.’1 Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Administrators’ conflicts of interest – 2018’s hot potato?”
Jane Colston discusses the use of AI in the courts under the new disclosure pilot scheme’s push for cheaper tech-assisted review
Lord Burnett of Maldon has set up a new advisory board made up of senior judges and artificial intelligence (AI) experts to consider and advise on the issues arising from the use of AI in the courts. In setting up the group, Lord Burnett seeks to ensure that judges are at the forefront of governing how increasingly capable AI technology may be used in and by the courts of England and Wales. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Tech-driven review vs the fear of missing out”
In spring 2018, Legal Business found the Madrid legal elite still recovering from a jolt that unsettled the local establishment. As one of the best-regarded deal makers in Spain, Juan Picón had at the end of 2017 given up his role as DLA Piper senior partner to join Latham & Watkins as Madrid head and Latin America co-chair.
Off the back of three consecutive years of GDP growth above 3% and mounting interest from international investors, Spain had been moving back onto the radar of leading international firms – the list of those stepping up investment in the country going well beyond the US giant to range as wide as Allen & Overy (A&O) to Fieldfisher. Some believed signs of renewed investment would shake up the staid local talent market and bring fresh challenges to the elite independents – Uría Menéndez, Garrigues and Cuatrecasas. Continue reading “Letter from Iberia – Despite turbulent politics, Madrid lawyers sustain bullish mood”
The best dispute lawyers often have something of the diva or rockstar about them – argumentative, uncompromising and brash. Michael Davison, head of Hogan Lovells’ litigation, arbitration and employment group, describes Neal Katyal, who runs the firm’s Washington DC disputes team, as such a figure. It is easy to see why: at the age of 48, Katyal had argued more Supreme Court cases than anyone else in US history and appeared as himself in Netflix’s political drama House of Cards.
London, of course, has no shortage of big characters in litigation, even if the clubby world of hard-living, hard-working boys is giving way to a more diverse crowd. To assess the prospects for the disputes market, Legal Business decided to focus on a dozen of the largest players in the City, spanning traditional leaders, the largest specialist firms and a handful of the most expansive US outfits. Continue reading “Bench strengths – Sizing up the City’s top dispute teams”
So ubiquitous have two companies become in legal tech circles that they are rarely discussed directly, just accepted as facts of life, like gravity or air. Those two are, of course, LexisNexis and the legal division of Thomson Reuters, which have over the last 30 years positioned themselves as the dominant providers of the informational ‘plumbing’ law firms require to ply their trade.
For LexisNexis that key moment came in the 1970s when an arm of the Ohio State Bar Association commissioned a project to deliver an information service exclusively aimed at legal research, named Lexis. During the same decade West Publishing was Lexis’ main competitor, using a computer-assisted legal research project that would later be branded Westlaw. Continue reading “Can law tech’s big beasts Lexis and Thomson stay on top in a changing industry?”
Seven years after Wiggin set up IP technology company Incopro, it has raised $21m and expanded to protect more than 600 brands, Hamish McNicol reports
Simon Baggs, co-founder and chief executive of online brand protection provider Incopro, has a friend who designs and sells high-end rugs for tens of thousands of pounds. Within days of a visit to a trade fair in China, however, there were fake replicas of her product available on e-commerce giant Alibaba.com. Continue reading “Law Tech Special: Fake rugs and drill bits – Incopro eyes brand protection dominance”
With deferred prosecution agreements proving a success and the scale of investigations increasing, things have never been busier for corporate crime firms. Anna Cole-Bailey discusses
The consensus among white-collar crime partners is that financial misconduct cases are not going away any time soon. With many investigations historic, they leave deep footprints over time. Continue reading “Market Report: White-Collar Crime – Closing the net on corruption”
Companies with thousands of contracts want to not only store them, but manage and learn from them too. It is not just about in-house legal teams, however, Hamish McNicol reports
The International Association for Contract & Commercial Management, a 55,000-member representative group spanning 177 countries, estimates that the average company loses more than 9% of revenue a year to contract-related issues. More than half of this is due to poor contract quality, its research in 2018 concluded, with other factors including poor contract management and contracting costs. Continue reading “Law Tech Special: The final throes of the Wild West? Contract management bids to move into the mainstream”
Richard Kovalevsky QC on the difficulties facing prosecutors of financial crime
Following the Bribery Act coming into force on 1 July 2011, commentators focused on the contention that while there was a Rolls-Royce in the garage, prosecutors in the area of corruption and financial crime were using an old Mini as the vehicle of choice. In 2012 and 2013, the sleek well-engineered machine that is the Bribery Act remained unused while the everyday patchwork of existing offences seemed to be the preferred vehicle for prosecutors. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Financial crime and criminal prosecutions in the UK”
Our dispute resolution team is a cadre of specialist litigators. We work with our in-house legal teams to find the most effective route to resolving the disputes that inevitably arise during the course of business. Our aim is to help quantify and manage risk, and offer solutions-driven advice. We actively work with our clients on litigation avoidance strategies. We appreciate how competitive the market place is for you and the challenging decisions that are having to be made as a consequence. We can help in pre-empting issues that might arise from those decisions.
Our philosophy is to place ourselves between our client and the problem, and we never lose sight of the fundamental issue in each case that we take – what outcome does our client need to achieve? – and that directs everything we do and how we do it. Continue reading “Sponsored firm profile: Ashfords”
Edward Sawyer and Jia Wei Lee look at a recent Court of Appeal decision on the extent of a fiduciary’s obligation to disclose commission payments
In The Attorney General for Hong Kong v Reid [1994] 1 AC 324, Lord Templeman described bribery as ‘an evil practice which threatens the foundations of any civilised society’. And as every trusts lawyer knows, the best way to wage war against depravity is by the well-timed imposition of a constructive trust. What we do not know, however, is how much fiduciaries must tell principals about their commissions. Medsted Associates Ltd v Canaccord Genuity Wealth (International) Ltd [2019] EWCA Civ 83 gives us part of an answer. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: When is a secret commission secret? A primer on Medsted v Canaccord Genuity”
For large companies and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, disputes are an inevitable feature of doing business. According to the Litigation Trends Annual Survey, published by Norton Rose Fulbright, US companies now spend $1.2m on disputes per $1bn of annual revenue. Add in the growth of non-US companies involved in disputes and tens of billions of dollars are being spent worldwide in resolving them. Where those disputes are resolved, and in what form, is evolving in line with the global economy – as economic power shifts eastwards, so does the volume of disputes.
Despite this trend, which is underpinned by intense competition from rival dispute resolution centres in Asia, London continues to be the world’s most favoured international disputes destination – at least for now. As rival jurisdictions seize the opportunity to increase their share, the battle for business shows no sign of abating. Continue reading “Global disputes hubs jostle for position – Where in the world?”
Chris Brennan follows on from his panel discussion at the Financial Services Regulation and Disputes Summit to explore the options for reforming investigations and enforcement
The closing panel of the recent Legal Business Financial Services Regulation and Disputes Summit was asked to discuss how they would approach the establishment of a new regulatory enforcement body. This article picks up on some of the themes discussed. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Enforcement reimagined”
Daizy Chawla charts the progress of India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code
‘The Insolvency Code is a legislation which deals with economic matters and, in the larger sense, deals with the economy of the country as a whole.’ Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Financial litigation in India – An analysis of recent developments in insolvency law”
Julian Stait and Tom Canning, litigation partners in the London arm of Milbank, look at the complex field of tech disputes
Disputes arising out of complex technology projects continue to arise with alarming frequency; the more complex the project, the more likely it is that problems will arise. And yet, looking back over a large number of years of handling these types of disputes, many of the key causes, issues and themes remain the same, notwithstanding the passage of time. Why is that? Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Technology disputes – A perfect storm of complex technical, legal and business issues”
Rémy Gerbay looks at whether Africa could prove a suitable arbitration seat for US corporations
Private investments by US corporations in Africa are expected to increase in the coming years. In turn, cross-border disputes are also expected to surge. This comes at a time when arbitrating disputes on the African continent is slowly becoming an increasingly viable option for US corporations. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The coming of age of arbitration in Africa”
Rishi Pursem SC and Bilshan Nursimulu discuss how Mauritius has evolved to become an increasingly popular choice for arbitration
On 1 January 2009, the Mauritian International Arbitration Act came into force. It created a completely new regime for international arbitration and expressly provides that it is to be developed in keeping with the international principles underlying the UNCITRAL Model Law. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The Mauritius International Arbitration Act – A decade on”
Moritz Blasy, Nicolai Binkert and Simon Ott detail Liechtenstein’s new conciliation procedure
Liechtenstein’s fiduciary and financial services industry has a long history of rendering high-quality services to an international clientele of high-net-worth individuals. For almost 100 years Liechtenstein’s unique legal system has attracted high-net-worth individuals seeking to structure their wealth. The Liechtenstein foundation and the Liechtenstein trust have proven to be particularly popular wealth-structuring vehicles. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: A new ADR instrument for conflicts between beneficiaries and professional fiduciaries”
JMiles & Co specialises in international arbitration, mediation and fraud and asset recovery and is a recipient of the Law Society of England and Wales Excellence Award for international legal services. We have acted for African governments and private clients in Africa and elsewhere across the world. The team consists of lawyers who have qualified and practised in England, Kenya and Singapore and have a deep understanding of the legal and commercial realities of doing business in Africa and is one of the only entities in East Africa providing specialised advice and representation to clients on international arbitration.
