Seyfarth Shaw LLP (LexBlog United Kingdom)

By Paul Whinder and Daniel P. Hart Seyfarth Synopsis: At the State Opening of Parliament last week, the UK Government outlined its legislative agenda through the King’s Speech, an annual address where the ruling monarch, wearing the Imperial State Crown, reads a speech that has been prepared by the current Government outlining the Prime Minister’s priorities for the...

This post was originally published to Seyfarth’s Trading Secrets blog. The UK government has announced that it will bring in legislation to restrict the post-employment non-compete restraints to three months. This is a significant proposal as currently non-compete restrictions in the UK are generally capable of being enforced for a period up to 12 months...

Gone are the days when workplace safety belongs only in factories and mines. In 2023 criminal charges can and will be brought in relation to hazards and their associated risks that traverse every industry, every workplace and cannot be seen by the naked eye. Caution signs will not “cut the mustard”. Born originally from the...

By: Nelli Shevchenko The U.K. Home Office has updated the Employer’s Guidance on Right to Work Checks on 28 February 2023. The guidance contains important information about obligations and compliance processes for UK right to work applications made by UK-based employers. Changes include clarifications on eVisa and BRPs checks, use of ID Service Providers, and clarifications of...

Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. This week, we’ve got more info on ballot initiatives – probably a feature that will follow us into November. We start out in Missouri, head over to Arkansas and wind up in Oklahoma. But that’s not all!...

Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. The ban on cannabis sales in DC remains in effect.  The Delaware House voted against adult-use marijuana.  New York is offering opportunities in the cannabis industry to those with marijuana convictions.  The NCAA is relaxing its...

Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. The ban on cannabis sales in DC remains in effect.  The Delaware House voted against adult-use marijuana.  New York is offering opportunities in the cannabis industry to those with marijuana convictions.  The NCAA is relaxing its...

By: Angelo A. Paparelli   “America is back, the trans-Atlantic alliance is back.” – So declared President Biden on February 23, 2021.  Apparently, however, Antony J. Blinken, the newly installed U.S. Secretary of State (DOS), didn’t get the memo.  On March 2, 2021, he “rescinded the previous national interest determination regarding categories of travelers eligible for...

By Tessa Cranfield, Paul Cutrone, Julia Gorham, and Daniel E. Waldman Seyfarth Synopsis: With the announcement of the roll out of the Pfizer/BioNTec COVID-19 vaccine commencing in the UK last week (week of December 7, 2020) and vaccination roll out to commence in the US in due course, international employers are considering their options to...

The Supreme Court in the UK, the highest court in the country, last week ruled on a restrictive covenant case for the first time in 100 years [Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd [2019] UKSC 32 (3 July 2019)]. It has clarified important points on interpretation, the key takeaway being it will now be easier for...

By Rachel Bernasconi, Paul Cutrone, Ameena Majid, and Peter Talibart Seyfarth Synopsis: This is the first in a series of blogs dealing with modern slavery where we explore how companies can get ahead of the curve of the quickly changing legal landscape by educating themselves on their connection to this issue. Seyfarth has been very active...

By: Deirdre M. Murphy The following is directed to organizations with a presence in the UK or who anticipate the need to place talent at a UK work site. Seyfarth Shaw’s Global Mobility Practice hosts attorneys licensed to practice in the UK, Canada, Ireland and Germany. The group has the capability to assist clients with...

As a special feature of our blog—guest postings by experts, clients, and other professionals—please enjoy this blog entry from Jeremy Morton, Partner at Harbottle & Lewis LLP, London, UK. For the first time ever, we have UK-wide legislation that concerns the protection of confidential information. Modifying its approach in light of a recent consultation exercise,...

Today, the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”), the UK data protection authority, released for public comment its draft “Regulatory Action Policy,” a document in which the ICO seeks to set forth its objectives in taking regulatory action, present its new investigatory and enforcement powers, and explain how it aims to use them. The comment period will...

As a special feature of our blog—guest postings by experts, clients, and other professionals—please enjoy this blog entry from Jeremy Morton, Partner at Harbottle & Lewis LLP, London, UK. The UK government has finally launched a consultation on its proposed “Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc) Regulations 2018,” in advance of the June 9, 2018, deadline to...

Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. Senators from both parties try to ease banking for marijuana businesses (Reuters UK: Financial Services and Real Estate, 18 May 2017) WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) – Republican and Democratic senators on Wednesday renewed their drive to...

Seyfarth Synopsis: The UK Parliament has passed the EU Withdrawal Bill, paving the way for the Government to invoke Article 50, the mechanism for leaving the European Union, by the end of March 2017.  On March 13, 2017, the UK Parliament passed the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill.  The Bill’s purpose is to allow...

By Paul Whinder and Tessa Cranfield Seyfarth Synopsis: The trend of increased regulation of the financial services industry continues apace in the UK with the recent introduction of mandatory rules on whistleblowing governance. . New rules on whistleblowing have come into effect which impact certain Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) regulated...

Season’s Tweetings In the first UK high court decision on tweeting, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that dismissal of an employee for offensive posts on his private twitter account could potentially justify termination under the UK’s unfair dismissal rules. The employee was dismissed after a colleague raised an anonymous complaint about the content of...

By Peter Talibart, Dan Hart, and Georgina McAdam As many employers have experienced, guarding against misuse of confidential and proprietary information by former employees can be a challenge in an increasingly digitalized and globalized marketplace.  For companies with operations in the United Kingdom, recent court decisions provide some helpful guidance on protecting confidential and...

By: Mark Casciari and Ian Morrison On February 24, 2012, Judge Richard Posner of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit authored a significant post-Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes class certification decision.  In McReynolds v. Merrill Lynch, No. 11-3639, the Seventh Circuit reversed the denial of class certification under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(2).  A detailed discussion of the...

Today’s New York Times brims with immigration dysfunctions galore. The paper’s immigration reports tellingly underscore the front-burner role this white-hot policy issue plays in the nation and the world. In the first section alone, we see: · An open-mike faux pas by British PM Gordon Brown, referring to an immigration opponent as a “bigoted woman,”...