Best legal reads of the week - July 27 - 31
Published on 31st Jul 2015
What are the top reads of the week around the web written by Osborne Clarke people? Which posts have been shared the most via social?
Following the recent nuclear deal with Iran, many businesses with an interest in the region are already starting to consider the next steps as sanctions are relaxed, and possibly even lifted. In this blog post, our experts talk through what the Iran nuclear deal means. Read it here.
With the saga of Lord Sewel’s rather public fall from grace coming to an end with his resignation this week, can an employee’s conduct outside of work warrant their dismissal? We clear up this often ‘grey area’ of employment law here.
Due to recent technical issues with its online service, the HMRC has confirmed that the deadline for filing annual returns has been extended to 4 August 2015. There are only four days left, so if you operate employee share plans, make sure you read more about it here.
TheCityUK – the body set up in 2010 to promote the UK financial and professional services industry – has published its report on access to the capital markets for the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. Capital markets currently play a relatively small role in SME financing, with 70% of finance coming from bank loans. The report looks at ways to reduce SMEs’ dependence on bank loans at a time when the ability (and willingness) of banks to lend is still constrained, and at how to help SMEs raise capital in other ways more quickly and cheaply. Read our summary of its key recommendations and findings here.
As part of the raft of changes introduced in the Government’s publication, ‘Fixing the foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation’ (July 2015) – for background, see our article here – a new dispute resolution service has been proposed for section 106 agreements. The change is being promoted as a mechanism for speeding up negotiations, enabling housing development to proceed at a faster pace. We tracks the most recent changes to the section 106 regime, reflecting on how the new system could work in practice but more particularly on how it could be employed by developers as a useful tool when negotiating with local authorities. Check it out here.
This is the first in our new quarterly litigation update, in which we look at the latest developments on privilege, the role of contractual common sense in contracts, mitigation of damages and new regulations on alternative dispute resolution. As well as highlighting some key upcoming developments, we spotlight cartel damages claims and cover our recent specialist updates on Asset Tracing & Enforcement and on IP, which you can read here.
For more blog posts on disputes, click here for our dedicated disputes hub.
Our regular quoted company legal news update is back. In our July edition, we cover a number of topics including cyber risks on corporate finance transactions, mandatory gender pay gap reporting and the Modern Slavery Act. You can read it here.
The government has announced a major investment in research and development of driverless vehicles, alongside a new code of practice, which provides further framework for the industry to safely trial cars in real-life scenarios on public roads. You can read all about here.
