Month: April 2021

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Sponsored briefing: RPC interview series – Andy McGregor

RPC

Why are fraud disputes increasing year on year?

Numbers collected by the litigation intelligence company Solomonic show a dramatic increase: 94 fraud-related cases were recorded in 2020, compared with 61 cases in 2019 and 31 in 2018.

Based on our experience, 2021 is likely to see that number go even higher. It’s hard to know exactly what is driving that. I don’t think that we have collectively become worse people though. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: RPC interview series – Andy McGregor”

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Sponsored briefing: RPC interview series – Michelle Sloane

RPC

What advice would you give to clients who want to be prepared for potential investigations in relation to the criminal offences of failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion?

A defence exists of having ‘reasonable prevention procedures’ in place. Therefore, the first thing that I would advise is to ensure these procedures are in place. Despite the new laws on failure to prevent tax evasion being around since September 2017, quite a lot of corporates have failed to implement any procedures. These corporates will find it near impossible to mount a successful defence to these offences. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: RPC interview series – Michelle Sloane”

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Sponsored briefing: RPC interview series – Simon Hart

RPC

To what extent is the current crisis similar to the 2008 financial crisis?

They are very different. Every economic crisis has different drivers, despite people tending to lump them together. The consequences for the legal market are always different as a result. Why? 2008 was a once-in-a-lifetime event, just like the pandemic, but of a different type. Undercapitalised banks themselves were one of the main causes of the crisis, they were right at the heart. The economy was on the precipice because the banks were so over-leveraged. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: RPC interview series – Simon Hart”

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Sponsored briefing: RPC interview series – Jeremy Drew

RPC

How would you describe RPC’s retail offering?

Our retail group is one of the five strategic focuses of the firm. It sits at the very heart of what we do.

It’s one of the biggest and most comprehensive retail practices in the City. We have the necessary scale. There are more than 70 core people in the retail group, over 30 of whom are partners. We have intentionally kept a reasonably high partner leverage. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: RPC interview series – Jeremy Drew”

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Sponsored briefing: Indian courts in litigants’ homes

The team at Singhania & Partners LLP discuss how courts in India have adapted to online technology over the past year

While it may be true that the pandemic has badly affected all activities across the world, it certainly has paved the way for much needed overhauling in the dispute resolution system in India. Dispute resolution is functioning in some ways much better online and has adapted to technology within a year, which otherwise would have taken a decade. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Indian courts in litigants’ homes”

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Written in the stars: the up-and-coming generation on the future of disputes

‘We’re changing law firms just through being who we are and by the different perspectives that we bring,’ Linklaters counsel Jacqueline Chaplin tells Legal Business.

With every generation of disputes practitioners come new perspectives and an enthusiasm to leave a mark on the practice. And, in the past year, firms have been forced to adapt to significant business change in a way that – were they undisturbed by the pandemic – they may have tiptoed around implementing for years. Now, disputes practices have the opportunity to maintain the momentum for modernisation and embrace different perspectives and new challenges. Continue reading “Written in the stars: the up-and-coming generation on the future of disputes”

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Resilient Keystone sees double-digit revenue growth in financials buoyed by senior recruitment

Keystone Law has significantly outstripped its half-year results unveiled in September, by posting a healthy 11% increase in turnover for the full year to 31 January 2021.

Revenues were up to £55m from last year’s £49.6m, with the rate of increase nearly double the 6.5% announced in the half-year results. Continue reading “Resilient Keystone sees double-digit revenue growth in financials buoyed by senior recruitment”

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Sponsored briefing: Angola – getting back in the game

Morais Leitão’s Claudia Santos Cruz on recent legal developments and the future of the Angolan oil industry in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic

For a brief period in 2009, Angola was Africa’s largest oil producer with production reaching two million barrels per day. Current production is around 1.37 million barrels per day. This reduction is generally attributed to a general reduction in production; low oil prices and more recently Covid-19 pandemic effects. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Angola – getting back in the game”

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Hope floats for City listing overhaul but American audacity is vital

starry sky over the City

City business has had cause to take heart in recent months with a clear display of political will behind an overhaul of UK listing rules that could see London shake off its Brexit and pandemic woes and reassert itself as a global financial hub. Our Global London report finds US and European firms alike concerned about the status of their London offices now that Brexit is a hard reality.

Proposals set out in the UK Listing Review in March, led by Lord Hill, will particularly pique the interest of anyone tracking the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) market. Indeed, the ubiquity of those deals has made them difficult to miss. There has been much talk of London jumping on the bandwagon in a fit of FOMO as other listing destinations, especially the US and Amsterdam, pile into that frothy market with gusto. However, to say that London has been lagging competitors in the US, Europe and Asia for too long is an understatement, and any shake-up to expedite parity with peers has not come a moment too soon. Continue reading “Hope floats for City listing overhaul but American audacity is vital”

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The work from home dilemma – get creative

If 2020 was about surviving coronavirus and lockdown, 2021 is most certainly about rebuilding and making up for lost time. With the Covid-19 vaccine rollout progressing well, and pubs and shops reopening ahead of a supposed return to normality by late June, going back to the office is becoming a reality.

As The Legal 500 UK editor Georgina Stanley points out in ‘Living at work’, the past year has seen the stigma that working from home is less productive than long office hours eradicated, but we have also lost the benefits of spontaneous social interaction with clients and colleagues and the ease of separation between work and home life. As for the younger generation of lawyers, they are suffering from a lack of face time with clients and partners, losing out on crucial training and development. Continue reading “The work from home dilemma – get creative”

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The Client Profile: Lindsay Beardsell, Tate & Lyle

Lindsay Beardsell is never one to rest on her laurels. She trained and qualified at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer but, as is the case for so many established general counsel (GCs), private practice failed to satisfy the need to be closer to a business.

She recalls: ‘My parents had their own businesses and that always interested me – the cut and thrust. I wanted to be close to the commercial aspects of the business. So I left Freshfields two years post-qualification, which was a bit of a shock to people, and went to British Gas for my first in-house role.’ Continue reading “The Client Profile: Lindsay Beardsell, Tate & Lyle”

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Global London: Non-US firms in London – On standby

The issue on every European partner’s lips in our Global London report in 2016 was the outcome and fallout of the UK’s Brexit referendum on 23 June that year. Even then, just a few months before the vote, there was a palpable hope that Britain would not do the unthinkable. Those hopes were soon dashed. With the transition period ending on 31 December 2020, the UK has officially left the EU. What does this mean for the London strategies of European firms that have maintained small but effective London offices? Is it time to pack their bags?

Despite the uncertainties non-US firms based in the City have faced in the past five years, there is notable confidence over the importance of the location and the sustainability of a London practice beyond 2021. Continue reading “Global London: Non-US firms in London – On standby”

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Sponsored briefing: Running a people business

You have been chair of Paul Hastings’ City office since October 2018. What have been your personal highlights of how the firm has developed in London?

Arun Birla (AB): I’ve enjoyed seeing our practices grow, and not just from a client or revenue perspective, but also in other aspects that are particularly important to me – diversity and inclusion, wellness, and on the social mobility front. We’ve built on all those elements – clients, revenues and integrating new partners, alongside what some people might call the softer things, but I don’t like that term. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Running a people business”

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Life During Law: David Patient

My father was a consultant obstetrician, his brother was an accountant, but I was rubbish at science and didn’t like maths. I was pushed down this corridor – ‘why don’t you do law?’ I knew absolutely nothing about it and no-one in our family had been a lawyer.

Some of my best friends still are people I met at university. A lot of them have gone off to do other things but one of them who has remained a close friend from the very first evening we met is a senior corporate partner at Allen & Overy, Richard Hough. Really lovely guy. Continue reading “Life During Law: David Patient”

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Sponsored briefing: Evaluation on protection of personal data law for international companies

KN & Partners’ M Burak Küçüki̇slamoğlu and İ Can Nari̇n on the importance of Turkey-based international companies following the GDPR and PDPL

As is known, with the development of technology and digitalisation, personal data processing activities have increased considerably. In addition to this, through softwares it has become possible to reach almost unlimited personal data. Consequently, this situation raises concerns for individuals in terms of the scope of principle of privacy. In this context, in order to prevent damages that may affect the individual, in other words in order to protect the personal rights and privacy of individuals and to determine the sanctions to be applied in case of violation, it has become necessary to take some precautions. At this point, while General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is accepted among the contries in the European Union; here in Turkey, we encounter a similar regulation: Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL). Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Evaluation on protection of personal data law for international companies”

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Sponsored briefing: Pre-contractual negotiations during M&A transactions in Turkey

The pre-contractual phase of the acquisition of a company or merger of companies typically begins with the first contact between the parties and ends in the best case scenario with the conclusion of the contract. This phase plays a vital role for the wellbeing of the transaction: parties reach various, usually non-binding, but possibly also legally binding preliminary agreements at this stage, from which, possible claims for performance or damages can arise.

Often a ‘due diligence’ is already carried out during this stage, which can serve an important function in the context of warranty claims. Even if the parties have not concluded legally binding preliminary agreements, ‘pre-contractual party obligations’ already arise under Turkish law. Thus, the negotiating parties to an M&A deal bear the risk of being held liable for ‘culpa in contrahendo’, that is a legal principal in contract law for many civil law countries including Turkey, which stipulates the duty to negotiate with care before the contract is concluded. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Pre-contractual negotiations during M&A transactions in Turkey”

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Sponsored briefing: Acquisition of properties in Turkey by foreign-capitalised companies

Starting from the early 2000s, Turkey became increasingly popular in the eyes of foreign investors. By increasing their market share every following year, the real estate investments reached a significant level as a result of such foreign investments, which include different types of investments and investors. Direct investment by acquisition of a property following the incorporation of a company in Turkey; indirect investment by acquisition of shares of a company, which already own a property; or investment by forming of a joint venture with a Turkish company may be regarded as examples of foreign investments in the Turkish real estate market. Similarly, the countries of origin of the investors also diversified throughout the time. Today, in addition to the US and Europe, Turkey welcomes numerous investments from the Gulf Region countries and Far East countries as well.

The main group of investors in the Turkish real estate market include foreign real estate funds/companies; project development companies; investment companies as well as foreign persons who wish to acquire a property in Turkey either for personal use or to obtain Turkish citizenship. The investments may focus on shopping malls, office buildings, residences, or involve construction of hotel projects, entering into partnerships with the owners of completed projects or acquisition of all shares of the same, etc. Furthermore, the investors also prefer to be a part of revenue-sharing agreements or become a partner of the government in construct-operate-transfer1 projects or public private partnership (PPP)2 projects. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Acquisition of properties in Turkey by foreign-capitalised companies”

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Sponsored briefing: Q&A with partner Egemen Egemenoglu

1. Given Turkey’s recent economic problems and the problems created by the Covid-19 pandemic, how is this affecting your firm?

We can proudly say that we have successfully surpassed the challenging position that came along with the Covid-19 pandemic in all respectable matters thanks to our comprehensive experience gained throughout the 53 years in which we have provided legal services in Turkey. In these 53 years, our firm had to take innovative and cautious steps in order to tide over many different challenges such as several economic and political crises we have encountered as a country. So, when the first cases of Covid-19 were reported by the officials in Wuhan City, China, in December 2019, we knew that we had to prepare for the worst-case scenario. For this reason, we have accelerated our digitalisation process – thus taking it into a next level even though our digital infrastructure was already at advanced levels. As such, when the first Covid-19 case was announced in Turkey on 10 March 2020, we were already prepared to detach ourselves from our physical offices and started to work from our homes on 15 March 2020 through the decision mutually taken by our partners. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Q&A with partner Egemen Egemenoglu”