The world is not enough: law for a virtual universe
Not all lawyers have heard of the virtual world of Second Life; indeed, even some of those who have believe it is just a video g… read more
Munich’s historic Bayerischer Hof hotel, which fuses tradition and sparkling modernity, was an apt location for June’s ACC (Association of Corporate Counsel) Europe annual conference – bringing the continent’s in-house legal community together once again to discuss the latest challenges of their constantly shifting role.… read more
Educating lawyers for the future
If we go back some decades, an excellent lawyer was a professional with outstanding technical know-ledge in his specific field of expert-ise. He could be either an independent practitioner, a member of the judiciary or an in-house lawyer, but his prestige was based, almost exclusively, on his technical reputation. I challenge you today to think about a lawyer you know personally, someone you consider excellent. Do you already have a name? I am 100 per cent sure that the lawyer you have in mind has excellent techn-ical skills, but this is not the only reason you have chosen this person. Are you impressed with his or her leadership? Or do you value her academic role? Or his capacity for communicating with peers, clients or courts? … read more
Europe’s independent firms are used to fighting for survival. Following years of attack under the guise of globalisation, few market observers would deny that today they offer a credible alternative to their Anglo-Saxon global counterparts. Yet their battles are not over, and in fact in some markets they are really only just beginning. Across the continent, but especially in smaller markets such as Portugal, Austria and Switzerland, these firms are currently waging their latest contest – only this time with each other. … read more
In 2005 as the WTO celebrated its tenth birthday it seemed that the 148-member strong organisation was fast evolving into the undisputed global trade arbiter. China had joined in 2001, Russia’s entry seemed imminent, and an increasing number of wrangles involving all continents was being processed by the Geneva-based secretariat and its dispute panels. Lawyers advising member countries – (only states can commence disputes) – and third parties on the ramifications … read more
Lawyers’ opportunity to cleanse carbon footprints
The United States is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world (unless China has already surpassed it), and its emissions continue to grow. At the same time, the US and Australia are the only major industrialised countries that have not joined the Kyoto Protocol. American public opinion is clearly moving to favour mandatory carbon regulation, and it now appears that US policy is likely to reverse within the next two or three years.… read more
Duration of dispute resolution in Romania
Evolution prior to accession to the European UnionAs the moment of Romania’s accession to the European Union drew near, the talks regarding the effects implied by the acquiring of the European Union membership, including the legal ones, intensified and amplified. From a legal perspective, the process of preparing for Romania’s accession to the European Union began immediately after 1993, the moment in which our country signed the Adhesion Treaty to the European Union. This particular moment initiated the long and difficult process of assimilating the acquis communautaire and of harmonising the internal legal order with the European legislation. Thus, Romania implemented the EU legislation to a great extent; the revision of the Constitution from 2003 also included the necessary amendments with a view to the integration in the European Union and the application of the EU law. Leaving aside the fact that the assimilation of the European law and the harmonisation of the internal legal order with the EU’s is a continuous process, Romania’s efforts in this field are far from completed, the issues raised by the sensitive “Justice” chapter constituting the best proof in this respect. Following more than 10 years of legislative efforts, after the main aspects that the EU integration involved from a legal point of view had been intensely and publicly discussed, after the analysis and the knowledge of the EU law had become a priority for all parties involved, the following question was raised: is the Romanian justice ready for the changes that the direct application of the EU law in Romania would bring about?… read more
Partners ponder age discrimination
As European anti-age discrimination legislation has been rolled out across the EU – the extended deadline for implementation elapsing late last year – lawyers have been alert to the particular challenges it could pose for their profession. The European Lawyer’s December 2006/January 2007 issue discussed the impact on law firms in the UK, one of the final jurisdictions to enact Council Directive 2000/78/EC – (the conclusions of this article have been summarised under ‘United Kingdom’, below). Further to this, ius laboris (the international employment law, pensions and employee benefits alliance) has conducted a survey exclusively for the European Lawyer, providing an overview of the national laws and their effects on legal practices in nine other EU countries. … read more
In prolonged economic upturns, such as Europe is currently enjoying, companies are too busy expanding and thriving to become embroiled in disputes. The litigators take over when things start to go wrong. Or at least, that is the conventional wisdom. But at the moment, litigators across Europe are no less busy than their corporate colleagues, as disputes continue to come thick and fast. These broadly reflect the particular sectors that are active in individual countries, but there is a trend across the continent for wrangles relating to the M&A transactions that are buoying up the economy.… read more
Investor-state arbitrations: when BITs have bite
A mere 20 years ago, the notion that a private company or individual could sue a foreign government in an international forum over the mistreatment of an investment would have surprised all but a handful of international lawyers. Today, that is no longer the case. Since 1995, private companies and individuals have filed a wave of international arbitrations against foreign governments for violating the protections accorded to investments under bilateral investment treaties (BITs). The organisation that administers and oversees most of these cases, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), has registered 162 BIT arbitrations over the past 12 years. Additional BIT arbitrations have been brought before other arbitral institutions, such as the ICC and LCIA, as well as ad hoc tribunals operating under the rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). … read more
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has appointed Antoine Colonna d’Istria as managing partner of the firm’s Paris office. Prior to joining Freshfields, Mr Colonna d’Istria was a partner at Gide Loyrette Nouel and is also a member of the New York Bar, having spent three years practising with Rogers & Wells. He succeeds Jean-Claude Cotoni, who had been managing partner since 2004 and who remains a partner in the Paris corporate group. … read more
Slaughter and May advised the UK department for trade and industry on the sale of part of its interest in British Energy Group plc through an accelerated book-built offering. Four-hundred-and-fifty million ordinary shares were placed by the joint bookrunners with institutional investors. Based on the offering price, the gross proceeds are expected to be approximately £2.34 billion. Partners Charles Randell and Ian Hodgson led the transaction. … read more
An extremely interesting May meeting hosted in Paris saw Gérard Nicolay, director of the Paris Bar’s prestigious law school, expound on the current state of legal education in France. The event was organised by the Scipion management and marketing group. … read more
Anti-dumping dries up Brussels lawyers may be ruing the current situation with anti-dumping cases in the European capital, but they have only themselves to blame. … read more
Following the departure of Linklaters’ last significant patent litigator, Markus Deck (45), to CMS Hasche Sigle in June, the firm now only intends to undertake transaction-related patent litigation in Germany. Link-laters has let its IP capability here wane for several years – perhaps a pity, given increased litigation and the country’s importance for industrial property law specialists. “Destroying value” is how a competitor described Linklaters’ approach.… read more
The Italian practice of the US’s Paul Hastings recently celebrated its second anniversary. The firm, which opened for business in Italy as the economy was entering a recession, advises a mix of internat-ional clients (GE, Lazard, Rothschild and Morgan Stanley) and domestic blue-chip corporates (Fiat). Over the last two years, the Milan team has completed a number of industrial debt restructurings and landed a lead role advising Mediobanca in the high-profile return of Parmalat to the Italian stock exchange.… read more
Australian litigators Slater & Gordon made legal history in May this year by taking advantage of new rules and becoming the first law firm in the world to float on a public market. The listing was monitored with great interest, not only in Australia where the share price gained 40 per cent in its first day, but also in the UK where the legal sector is preparing itself for changes to ownership rules under the Legal Services Bill.… read more
In April 2007 the European Commission announced it had sent a Statement of Objections to major record companies, along with technology giant Apple, challenging the territorial restrictions applied to Apple’s iTunes online music stores. With two months to respond, observers eagerly await iTunes’ reaction, yet ultimate settlement of the case remains distant.… read more
While the first Islamic equity fund was established in 1986, it is only recently that the sector has started to expand rapidly, with more than 150 such funds currently available on the market. Most are based in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Although, traditionally, Islamic fund managers have focused on Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), US and European equities, now expansion into North Africa and Southeast Asia is also underway.… read more
Proposals contained in a European Commission communication of 3 April could result in it becoming easier, faster and cheaper for businesses to obtain and litigate patents in the EU. The paper, ‘Enhancing the Patent System in Europe’, seeks renewed efforts on two important issues that have been debated for years but have always ended in stalemate. But at this stage it is far from clear whether the Commission’s latest attempts to make progress in these areas will be any more successful than previous endeavours. … read more
Getting the priorities right is one of the hardest things for a new law firm manager to achieve. There is an enormous tendency to be driven by the bottom line. Partners expect ever-increasing profits and the new managing partner may well feel he or she is appoin-ted largely to achieve that objective, and no others.… read more
Advocate generals Paolo Mengozzi and Poiares Maduro recently gave their opinions on two leading cases before the ECJ concerning collective actions taken by unions in order to impose collective agreements on employers – thereby raising intriguing legal questions about the clash between rights of freedom to provide services and freedom of establishment, versus the right to collective action. … read more
Sporting bodies play for EU law exemption
Michel Platini, the recently-elected president of UEFA, the European governing body of football, recently called upon the European Union to exempt sport from its rules on the freedom of movement of labour – one of the so-called four freedoms of the single market – claiming that competitive football is under threat in Europe from the considerable recruiting power of the richest clubs.… read more
Akzo Nobel An end is finally in sight for the crucial European court case set to determine the parameters of legal privilege for in-house lawyers working in EU member states. The long-delayed Akzo Nobel case, concerning documents seized by the European Commission whose privilege is contested, will be heard as the European Lawyer goes to press (28 June). … read more
Using a project management approach in corporate compliance programs
Compliance programs often give too much attention to generalised corporate compliance awareness (and training) and then deal with compliance issues as they arise. At Eversheds, we found that a pre-structured compliance methodology, coupled with a clear set of compliance priorities, is more effective and more efficient than a merely reactive approach. … read more
Bulgarian civil procedure reform
The general framework and achievements of reform in the national legal systemOne of the most important general obligations which have been internationally agreed and vested on the Republic of Bulgaria in the process of accession to the European Union is to perform a reform of its legal system towards the common modern standards and practices established in the EU Member States. In this concern, it might be stated first of all that (i) the necessary amendments in the Constitution nave been adopted; (ii) most of the substantial civil Laws have been synchronised with the Law of the European Union and (iii) the criminal law and especially criminal procedure have been reconsidered. Furthermore, the rules of conflict of laws (the first set of that rules is dated to the 716th and is contained in the treaty between the First Bulgarian Kingdom and the Byzantine Imperia from the same year) and of the administrative procedure have been fully codified for the first time in the modern legal history of Bulgaria. … read more
Pros and cons: the reality of enforcement problems
Multinational investors transform local markets into global markets. This situation brings up the question; what will be the barriers for foreign investors to enforce foreign court judgments and arbitral awards in Turkey? … read more
You represent a client in a London arbitration facing allegations of improper conduct. Your client informs you that several months prior to appointment one of the arbitrators acted as advocate for their then opponent in an earlier arbitration instructed by the solicitors currently on the other side and that similar allegations of improper conduct were made against your client. There is no evidence that the arbitrator is actually biased against him but your client is concerned about the arbitrator's continued involvement. You invite the arbitrator to recuse himself. He refuses to do so. What other steps are open to your client? … read more
New Legislation on Insolvency in the Czech Republic
New legislation on insolvency and its resolution, the Insolvency Act, will take effect on 1 January 2008 in the Czech Republic replacing the outdated and often criticised Bankruptcy and Composition Act of 1991. … read more
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