The DOJ’s recently updated guidance poses helpful questions for UK corporates evaluating the effectiveness of their internal compliance programmes. By Stuart Alford QC, Erin Brown Jones, and Nathan H. Seltzer It is well known that a corporate’s failure to prevent offences can be answered with a defence of “adequate procedures” in a case of bribery or “reasonable procedures” in a case of failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion. However, with no…

Corporates should leverage growing carve-out and divestment activity across the European market with a strategic approach to deal making. By Robbie McLaren, Emily Cridland, and Catherine Campbell In the current deal market, corporates are taking an increasingly strategic and value-centred approach to planning carve-outs and divestments in order to maximise value. According to advisory firm EY, 84% of corporates questioned in late 2018 said they plan to divest an asset within the next…

English Supreme Court rules that there is no reasonable diligence requirement barring a fresh action to set aside a judgment obtained by fraud. Oliver E. Browne and Alex Cox Introduction In Takhar v Gracefield Developments Limited and others [2019] UKSC 13, the English Supreme Court considered whether a party applying to set aside an earlier judgment on the basis of fraud is required to show that it could not have discovered the fraud by the…

UK publishes White Paper with hard-hitting regulatory proposals to tackle online harms. By Alain Traill, Stuart Davis, Andrew Moyle, Deborah Kirk and Gail Crawford On 8 April 2019, the Home Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published an “Online Harms White Paper”, proposing a new compliance and enforcement regime intended to combat online harms. The regime is designed to force online platforms to move away from self-regulation and…

A rare example of the English High Court varying an arbitral award. By Oliver E. Browne and Eleanor M. Scogings In Dakshu Patel v. Kesha Patel [2019] EWHC 298 (Ch), the English High Court upheld an appeal under section 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (the Act) against an arbitral award. The court concluded that the tribunal had erred in law in finding that there had been a variation of the profit-sharing provisions of two…

Non-parties are entitled to obtain documents related to an arbitration if the case falls within the “interests of justice” exception. By Eleanor M. Scogings In The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators v B, C and D,[1] the English High Court granted the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Institute) access to documents related to an arbitration for use in disciplinary proceedings. Applying CPR 5.4C(2), the court balanced the Institute’s legitimate interests in obtaining copies of the documents…

The guidance provides helpful clarity on key regulatory changes impacting life sciences companies in the event of a no-deal Brexit. By Frances Stocks Allen, Oliver Mobasser, Héctor Armengod, Gail E. Crawford, Christoph W.G. Engeler, Robbie McLaren, and Henrietta J. Ditzen The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published a significant volume of guidance documents on various aspects of the post-Brexit life sciences regulatory landscape in the…