National Grid drops three from panel BDB Pitmans, Irwin Mitchell and Norton Rose Fulbright have been dropped from National Grid’s panel, understood to be worth about £12m a year in the UK. Womble Bond Dickinson is the sole new appointee on a roster that reduced the number of advisers from 12 to ten. Addleshaw Goddard, …
It’s not often a FTSE 100 GC and a law firm offer themselves up to the media to discuss a deal. Even panel review stories rarely elicit comment beyond a few contrived lines about ‘innovation’, ‘alignment’ and ‘deeper relationships’. So when BT legal chief Sabine Chalmers and DWF arranged conference calls in the summer to …
Continue reading “Outsourcing legal teams – Will it ever be more than flavour of the month?”
In Mexico, corporate governance best practices have been part of the business environment for the last 20 years. Since 1999, following the OECD Principles (which in turn used the recommendations of the Cadbury Report to varying degrees), the first voluntary Mexican Best Corporate Practices Code (CMPC), issued by the Mexican Business Co-ordinator Council was published. …
Two-key principle The opportunity to appoint two or more directors in a company, who exercise their authority jointly or severally, has been available in many foreign jurisdictions for a long time. However, until 2014 Russian law stuck to the approach that only one person may hold the position of CEO and be indicated as CEO …
Continue reading “Corporate governance in Russia: the two-key principle and director liability”
After 40 years of economic reforms and intense development in China, the economic landscape has matured. Foreign investment legislation in China sits on the cusp of a new era, in which reforms will pave the way for significant improvement, including corporate governance in foreign entities. Although, today foreign companies in China still face challenges in …
Continue reading “Challenges and changes in corporate governance within China”
Corporate governance is slowly but surely being implemented in Indonesia. The typical form of corporate/business organisation in Indonesia is a limited liability company, but other forms are available, including co-operatives, representative offices and partnerships. But since the limited liability company is by far the most common form of corporate organisation, in principle, corporate governance is …
In the last five years, some Brazilian companies became well known internationally due to their involvement in some of the world’s largest corruption schemes. As contradictory as it may seem, some of the companies involved in these scandals were highly regarded for their compliance rules and/or were listed in the Novo Mercado segment (which means …
Continue reading “Corporate governance and compliance: two sides of the same coin”
Recent years have seen an unprecedented focus on audit and auditors in the UK. This has been driven, at least in part, by a number of high-profile corporate failures as well as the perceived widening of the ‘audit expectations gap’, the difference between what users expect from an audit and the reality of what an …
Continue reading “Reforms to the audit market – major changes ahead”
As the level of sophistication of economic crime has evolved and increased, there has been a growing need to streamline the mechanisms for confiscating its benefits, thus eliminating its economic incentive and inculcating the idea that ‘crime does not pay’. The law went beyond a strict definition of white-collar crime and entered what is seen …
Continue reading “New Portuguese powers to seize criminal spoils – a dangerous game”
White-collar crimes have not only increased in scale but have also become increasingly sophisticated. Individuals, companies, and financial institutions have been outflanked by criminal attacks. Furthermore, with advancing technology and complex transactional structures, the proceeds of white-collar crime have become easier to dissipate and move. Accordingly, alongside combating the criminals, finding new and effective ways …
Continue reading “Asset recovery in Turkey: are criminal proceedings the only way?”