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Obligation to Advise on Tax Avoidance Revisited
In July 2013 I highlighted the case of Mehjoo v Harben Barker in which the High Court concluded that a firm of accountants was obliged to advise its clients about the availability of sophisticated tax...
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Broad Misconduct Test and Fault-Based Compensation Orders Create New...
Back in August last year I blogged about a discussion paper entitled Transparency & Trust: enhancing the transparency of UK company ownership and increasing trust in UK business which had just been...
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Invesco Final Notice
The UK financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) recently imposed a penalty upon Invesco Asset Management and Invesco Fund Managers of £18.6m for failings in fund...
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Changes to the Approved Persons Regime
In response to the 2013 Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards report, the current Approved Persons regime for banks is being replaced with a strengthened regime for regulating senior...
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New Rules Affect Race, Age and Sex Discrimination Claims Against Directors
Some important reforms to the employment tribunal system in the UK were introduced on 6th April 2014. These include a new discretionary power for employment tribunals to impose a financial penalty on...
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UK Supreme Court Extends Pool of Whistleblowers
The cornerstone of protection for UK employees against discrimination based on whistleblowing is Section 2 of the UK Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. This provides: A worker has the right not to be...
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Can You Insure Yourself Against Your Own Illegal Conduct?
You can’t insure yourself against your own illegal conduct, right? Well, it seems only up to a point. In a recent case a driver and passenger were both injured in a car accident in which prosecutors...
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U.K. Court Reaches Directors Overseas
We still hear a lot about long-arm jurisdiction being exercised by the United States—and rightly so. Rumours of its demise in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment in Morrison v National Bank of...
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Corporate Manslaughter Has Not Gone Away
A £40,000 fine might not sound much to one of the largest container shipping companies in the world, operating in 58 companies. But in this case it is perhaps the very size of the company concerned and...
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Shake-up of UK Healthcare Charges Could Catch Expats and Their Employers...
Medical tourism to the United Kingdom has been a controversial topic for many years, and according to an official report from the National Institute for Health Research, visitors and short-term...
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What Happens When Pre-Action Protocol is Not Followed
This High Court decision from the case of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Limited v Condek Holdings & Others by The Honourable Mr Justice Stuart-Smith provides a useful insight and a timely reminder into...
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More Regulations: Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Come Out…
The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has recently published an updated version of the Combined Code on Corporate Governance in the UK. It will apply to companies with reporting periods commencing...
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Misuse Confidential Information and Risk a Significant Payment
A recent decision of the English High Court found Barclays Bank liable to pay damages of €10 million to CF Partners for breaching an equitable duty of confidence. The Court held that the bank had...
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Redressing the Balance Between the Insurer and the Insured
In January 2006, the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission — both statutory independent bodies created to keep the law under review and to recommend reform where it is needed — began a joint...
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Real Estate and the Treasury’s Revised Funding Proposals for Pool Re
Commentators initially thought the UK Government’s revised funding proposals for Pool Re would have a significant effect on the provision of terrorism insurance in the UK, however a review of the...
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The SFO Secures its First Bribery Act Convictions: Watershed or Damp Squib?
It’s been a long time coming but the SFO have at last succeeded in securing its first convictions under the Bribery Act which came into force over three years ago. Given that the Act, by common...
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The Relationship Between Regulation and Corporate Culture
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), formerly the Financial Services Authority, holds an Enforcement Conference every two years. The latest one, last month, was the first one under the new FCA...
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So You Think You are a Non-Executive Director?
We all think we know the difference between an executive and a non-executive director – right? After all, an executive director has executive powers and functions and usually a contract of employment...
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Doing Your Incompetent Best as a Director May Still Be an Effective Defence
For me, there was one memorable phrase to emerge from the celebrated (at least in off shore fund management circles) 2011 Cayman Islands Grand Court case of Weavering Macro Fixed Income Fund Limited...
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Not Such Good News For Rogue Directors After All
Usually, I report on developments (good, bad or indifferent) for honest directors of companies doing their best to avoid personal liability. Until very recently, it seemed there was good news just...
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