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• General Data Protection Regulation Guidelines

  Parties that have possession, custody, or control of evidence potentially relevant to U.S. litigation or investigations are typically required to identify, collect, preserve, and produce such evidence (with limited exceptions) in response to discovery requests, subpoenas or litigation demands, regardless of where that evidence is located. Those requirements, however, may directly conflict with provisions in the European and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Where litigation or investigation matters involve evidence located in Europe or the UK, parties are put into a difficult position of determining how to comply with U.S. discovery and/or production obligations without violating the GDPR. For even a single GDPR violation parties can be fined up to the greater of 20 million Euro or 4% of a company’s annual worldwide revenue. Practitioners do not want to face such liabilities. The guidelines, accompanying checklist, model hold notice, and model protective order were developed by our EDRM team to help facilitate compliance. - David Cohen, Partner, Reed Smith LLP, co-Project Trustee. The white paper addressing “General Data Protection Regulation Guidelines” is published by EDRM’s GDPR Project Group led by co-Project Trustees, David R. Cohen, Partner and Yelizaveta Kotova, eDiscovery Attorney, Reed Smith LLP. The Commercial Litigation Association of Ireland is delighted to endorse the EDRM’s Data Protection Guidelines, which are an invaluable tool for lawyers in understanding and ensuring their obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation when engaged in cross-border litigation. - Helen Kilroy, Chair of the Commercial Litigation Association of Ireland (CLAI).

• The Pensions Brief - March 2024

  The Pensions Brief is a monthly update for trustees and employers of occupational pension schemes in the UK. It provides headline summaries of developments over the previous month and associated action points. It also includes a timeline of forthcoming developments over the next 12 months.

• Building Investor Trust in Hydrogen Projects

  The finance sector has a significant role to play in the global transition to net zero, with project financing being a customary means of raising funds in the energy and infrastructure sectors. Originally published in Global Hydrogen Review, April 4, 2024.

• The Register of Overseas Entities – what the real estate industry needs to know - March 2024

  The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 requires overseas entities which own, or wish to acquire, certain real estate in the UK to register with Companies House and to provide, and keep up-to-date, information regarding their beneficial ownership.

• Briefcase 2024 Quarter 1: Key Real Estate Cases and Updates

  Case 1: Blackhorse Investments (Borough) Ltd v Southwark London Borough Council - The Upper Tribunal found that an alienation covenant, a keep open covenant and a best endeavours covenant were outside of its jurisdiction to modify.

• Cayman Islands and BVI Sanctions Update – New Licensing Grounds for Russia Related Divestments

  New specific licensing grounds available under Cayman Islands and BVI Russia sanctions will pave the way for Cayman Islands and BVI investment funds and other entities to divest their frozen assets in Russia as well as remove sanctioned interests from their ownership structures. The UK has introduced new divestment specific licensing grounds in its Russian sanctions regulations which came into effect on 15 December 2023. The relevant Order in Council to extend these new grounds to British Overseas Territories, including the Cayman Islands and the BVI was made on 13 March 2024 and comes into force on 14 March 2024.

• UK Options for Whistleblower Financial Incentive Programmes in Economic Crime Investigations

  On 13th February 2024, in a wide-ranging speech, the Director of the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Nick Ephgrave, publicly stated his provisional support for financial incentives to whistleblowers in allegations of significant economic crime. This was Mr. Ephgrave’s first public speech, some six months after joining the UK’s anti-financial crime unit. Like previous Directors, having identified the challenge of investigating and prosecuting suspected fraud and corruption cases at any degree of pace, Mr. Ephgrave has embarked on reimagining the rules of the game to provide shortcuts and efficiencies. For Sir David Green, Director from 2012 to 2018, it was DPAs and an extension of the “failure to prevent” concept to all corporate financial crime – changes that have been implemented in the decade following their first mention. Sir David’s successor, Lisa Osofsky, suggested that wiretaps would improve the speed of investigations and the success rate of prosecutions. Fresh eyes on old challenges are always welcome.

• The Pensions Brief: February 2024

  The Pensions Brief is a monthly update for trustees and employers of occupational pension schemes in the UK. It provides headline summaries of developments over the previous month and associated action points. It also includes a timeline of forthcoming developments over the next 12 months.

• Regulatory monitoring Newsletter - February 2024

  1. Bank regulation - 1.1 Prudential regulation - (a) General - (i) EU - ECB: Memorandum of Cooperation between ECB and CAs on third-country bank supervision - Status: Final - The ECB has published a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between the ECB and competent authorities (CAs) in relation to the supervision of third-country banking groups and branches. The MoC’s aims include to: (i) ensure cooperation by the authorities with the aim of comprehensively supervising all activities of third-country groups in the EU. It seeks to strengthen the supervisory framework established by the CRD and the CRR that applies to third-country groups in the Union, to prevent the circumvention of its requirements, and to prevent any detrimental impact on the financial stability of the EU;...

• A Move Towards Unregulated Growth - Infrastructure

  Decarbonisation and digitisation: two of the key trends we heard a lot about in 2023 and we see no signs of that abating in 2024. Hand in hand with this, one of the ongoing themes for sponsors in the infra space is: how should we be thinking about structuring our investments into those unregulated ‘growth’ assets? We have answers! Take a look at our article for some of the key issues investors in growth assets should keep front of mind as they continue to invest through 2024.

Featured documents

• The U.K. Passes the Bribery Act Creating Several New Anti-Corruption Offenses, Including “Strict” Criminal Liability

  A major development in the enforcement and prosecution of overseas bribery occurred last week with the long awaited passage of the U.K.’s Bribery Act. The Act, which received royal assent last Thursday, creates several new anti-corruption offenses that could impact companies doing business in the...

• UK Public Procurement Law Digest: Risks of Abandoning Procurements

  Court defeat for contracting authority shows the potential risks of aborting a public procurement in favour of a parallel procurement, and highlights issues in the use of a “public sector comparator” model. Leeds City Council has lost the first stage of what might be a protracted legal battle...

• FSA Hedge Fund Surveys Conclusions Published

  The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) recently published a report entitled “Assessing possible sources of systemic risk from hedge funds.” It sets out the FSA’s key findings and conclusions from two surveys it conducted in April 2010—the Hedge Funds as Counterparties Survey (HFACS) and the...

• European Commission Consultation on the Review of MiFID

  The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (“MiFID”) came into force in November 2007 and made significant changes to the regulatory framework of financial services within the EU, introducing a harmonised regime for the regulation of investment services. On 8 December 2010, the European...

• Two Million Reasons to Break the Silence

  Following a recent Ofcom announcement, UK entities using automated dialling software face a change in the risk profile of marketing calls. Any UK entity using automated dialling software to facilitate marketing calls should be aware of a significant change in risk following the announcement by...

• UK Bribery Act to come into force on 1 July 2011

  On 30 March 2011 the Ministry of Justice released its long awaited guidance (the Guidance) setting out what may constitute an “adequate procedures” defence to an allegation that a commercial organisation failed to prevent bribery under section 7 of the UK Bribery Act 2010 (the Act). The publication ...

• Commercial Contracts: The Uncertainty of Construction

  Although disputes between contracting parties about the meaning of their documents have always been common, such disputes have been particularly prominent of late in the context of complex debt restructurings. The modern approach to contractual interpretation is derived from the speeches of...

• In Brief—UK Employment and HR Newsletter

  In this mid-year issue of our employment and HR newsletter, we look at the top ten lessons in dismissal and discrimination that we can learn from case law so far this year. We also highlight the key employment law changes that took effect in April and preview what is expected over the next few...

• UK Government Consults On Statutory Residence Test

  Background In recent years, UK law on tax residence has become increasingly problematic following a number of high-profile cases and changes to the UK Revenue’s published guidance. Although for most people living and working full-time in the UK the application of the residence rules is...

• Recent Contract Law Cases Relevant in the Financial Services Industry

  This DechertOnPoint examines some decisions of the English courts in the past year that may have relevance in the financial services industry. It is aimed primarily at in-house counsel and covers decisions in the following areas: - excluding liability for misrepresentation - interpretation ...