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Commercial Litigation UK
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April 15, 2024
Real Estate Plans Were £50M Ponzi Scheme, Investors Say
Over 400 real estate investors said two British men ran a U.K.-wide fraud akin to a Ponzi scheme at a London trial of their £50 million ($62.3 million) claim Monday, arguing the men had made false promises about the returns the investments would generate.
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April 15, 2024
Broker Hit With £15M Claim Over Mexican Reinsurance Policies
A Mexican reinsurance broker and one of its clients are suing a London-based broker for more than £14.8 million ($18.4 million), claiming that one of the U.K. company's agents faked documents for nonexistent reinsurance arrangements and pocketed the proceeds.
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April 15, 2024
Rastafarian Ex-Army Band Player Wins Race Bias Case
A former British Army horn player has won his racial discrimination case against the Ministry of Defence, with a tribunal concluding that officers stereotyped him as an "angry Black man" and dismissed his complaints about racist treatment.
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April 15, 2024
No Quid Pro Quo In Thank You Posts, Fired Journalist Says
A sports journalist fired after publicly thanking a company that was a corporate sponsor of his charity fundraising efforts argued to an employment tribunal Monday that there was "no quid pro quo" that compromised the BBC.
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April 15, 2024
SRA Accuses Lawyer Of Profiting From Client Loans
A solicitor profited from his clients' financial difficulties by convincing them to enter into financial arrangements for his benefit, the Solicitors Regulation Authority told a tribunal Monday.
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April 15, 2024
Prison Governor Loses Claim He Was Excluded From Union
A prison governor lost his claim against a trade union that refused to let him join its ranks twice because he had held key positions in another union that competed with it, an employment tribunal has ruled.
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April 15, 2024
Prince Harry Ordered To Pay Gov't Costs In Security Case
A London judge has ordered Prince Harry to pay 90% of the government's legal costs and refused him permission to appeal after he lost his challenge to its decision to downgrade his taxpayer-funded security when he quit his royal duties.
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April 15, 2024
AML Exec Loses Bid For Interim Pay In Whistleblowing Case
The co-founder of a London-based payments platform provider has lost his bid to be paid his £190,000 ($237,000) salary while he pursues a whistleblowing and unfair dismissal claim against the company.
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April 15, 2024
Skat Kicks Off £1.4B London Trial Against British Trader
A British trader was accused Monday of being the "mastermind" behind a fraudulent trading scheme that cost the Danish tax authority £1.4 billion ($1.7 billion) at the start of a year-long High Court trial.
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April 15, 2024
Trainee Solicitor's Bid To Claim SQE Fees From Ex-Firm Fails
A trainee solicitor cannot recoup fees for her legal qualification examinations from her former employer, with a tribunal finding that she failed to prove that the law firm had agreed to pay the fees.
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April 15, 2024
Avoiding Legal Pitfalls In M&A Deferred Pricing Deals
One of the worst markets for M&A dealmaking in a decade has spawned innovative pricing models such as deferred consideration arrangements for buyers and sellers to come to terms, but lawyers warn that these agreements have to be watertight to protect against future litigation.
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April 13, 2024
Newcastle Beats Sports Direct's Kit Injunction Bid
The Competition Appeal Tribunal has dismissed Sports Direct's request for an injunction to force Newcastle United to stock its stores with the soccer club's replica kits after a rival retailer was given an exclusive supply deal.
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April 12, 2024
CJEU Grand Chamber To Hear Patent Jurisdiction Referral
The EU's highest court is set to hear arguments on whether a member state has authority to hear patent invalidity defenses for foreign patents, in a rare instance of a patent referral made to the court's 15-judge grand chamber.
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April 12, 2024
US-based MSD Broke Ban On Using 'Merck' In UK, Court Finds
U.S.-based Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC's use of the "Merck" name on websites and social media breached the terms of a court order barring it from using the name in the U.K. to protect German drugmaker Merck KGaA's rights, a London court ruled Friday.
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April 19, 2024
Morgan Lewis Bolsters Munich Office With Partner Hire
Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP has hired the Munich office managing partner of Reed Smith LLP to shepherd its expanding global disputes practice.
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April 19, 2024
Lewis Silkin Brings Back Disputes Pro From Hausfeld
Lewis Silkin LLP has rehired a technology and insolvency expert from Hausfeld LLP in a bid to boost its commercial disputes practice.
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April 12, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen footwear brand Dr. Martens hit online retailer Temu with a passing off claim, Welsh soccer club Swansea sue its former head coach Russell Martin, Russian diamond tycoon Dmitry Tsvetkov file a claim against his former business Equix Group Ltd., and U.S. bank Omega Financial Corporation hit African oil and gas company Tende Energy with a claim. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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April 12, 2024
John Lewis Beats Muslim Worker's Discrimination Claim
Department store John Lewis has beaten accusations that it discriminated against a Muslim employee, but it botched the process for sacking him, a tribunal has ruled.
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April 12, 2024
Abbott Loses Bid To Nix UK Whistleblowing Case On Appeal
An appeals tribunal has rejected Abbott Laboratories' bid to escape a whistleblowing case brought by the founders of a British DNA technology business that it bought, concluding on Friday that the founders had an arguable case that U.K. judges had jurisdiction.
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April 12, 2024
Temp Engineer Must Pay £27K For 'Vexatious' Behavior
An employment tribunal has ordered a temp to pay thousands of pounds in litigation costs for bringing a claim he knew he would lose, having previously failed to show on three other occasions that he was an employee or a worker.
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April 12, 2024
Denmark's £1.4B Tax Fraud Trial Heads For 'Uncharted Waters'
Denmark will open its £1.4 billion ($1.7 billion) dividend fraud case in London on Monday, beginning a yearlong trial that will have wide implications for other disputes arising out of the cum-ex trading scandal that has swept Europe.
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April 12, 2024
Sky Managers Can't Appeal Dismissal Case On New Grounds
Two former Sky store managers cannot reargue their claim that the company owes them money following a mandatory change of role, an appeals tribunal has ruled, blocking them from raising a challenge on grounds that did not come up in the original case.
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April 12, 2024
Apple Loses Bid To Toss $1B App Maker Charges Case
The Competition Appeal Tribunal refused on Friday to toss a £785 million ($996 million) proposed class action by app developers against Apple over commission payments after finding that the claimants had a real shot at showing that the case was governed by U.K. law.
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April 12, 2024
Bayer Loses UK Protections For Billion-Dollar Blood Thinner
A London court on Friday invalidated Bayer AG's patent for its best-selling blood thinner Xarelto, agreeing with an array of generic drugmakers that the German pharmaceutical giant had given away too much information in conference materials about the drug before seeking protections.
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April 12, 2024
Clyde & Co. Must Face Ex-Client's Pared-Back Negligence Suit
Clyde & Co. LLP must face part of a construction magnate's negligence claim over a failed legal case concerning a soured investment, after a London judge tossed part of the case on Friday but ruled that one aspect of it had a real prospect of success.
Expert Analysis
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The Good, The Bad And The New Of The UK Sanctions Regime
Almost six years after the Sanctions and Money Laundering Act was introduced, the U.K. government has published a strategy paper that outlines its focus points and unveils potential changes to the regime, such as a new humanitarian exception for financial sanctions, highlighting the rapid transformation of the U.K. sanctions landscape, says Josef Rybacki at WilmerHale.
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Unpacking The Building Safety Act's Industry Overhaul
Recent updates to the Building Safety Act introduce a new principal designer role and longer limitation periods for defects claims, ushering in new compliance challenges for construction industry stakeholders to navigate, as well as a need to affirm that their insurance arrangements provide adequate protection, say Zoe Eastell and Zack Gould-Wilson at RPC.
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Prompt Engineering Skills Are Changing The Legal Profession
With a focus on higher-value work as repetitive tasks are delegated to artificial intelligence, legal roles are set to become more inspiring, and lawyers need not fear the rising demand for prompt engineers that is altering the technology-enabled legal environment, say Eric Crawley, Shah Karim and Paul O’Hagan at Epiq Legal.
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Opinion
UK Whistleblowers Flock To The US For Good Reason
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office director recently brought renewed attention to the differences between the U.K. and U.S. whistleblower regimes — differences that may make reporting to U.S. agencies a better and safer option for U.K. whistleblowers, and show why U.K. whistleblower laws need to be improved, say Benjamin Calitri and Kate Reeves at Kohn Kohn.
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4 Legal Privilege Lessons From Dechert Disclosure Ruling
The Court of Appeal's recent decision in Al Sadeq v. Dechert LLP, finding that evidence may have been incorrectly withheld, provides welcome clarification of the scope of legal professional privilege, including the application of the iniquity exception, says Tim Knight at Travers Smith.
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BT Case May Shape UK Class Action Landscape
The first opt-out collective action trial commenced in Le Patourel v. BT in the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal last month, regarding BT's abuse of dominance by overcharging millions of customers, will likely provide clarification on damages and funder returns in collective actions, which could significantly affect the class action regime, say lawyers at RPC.
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Key Points From EC Economic Security Screening Initiatives
Lawyers at Herbert Smith analyze the European Commission's five recently announced initiatives aimed at de-risking the EU's trade and investment links with third countries, including the implementation of mandatory screening mechanisms and extending coverage to investments made by EU companies that are controlled subsidiaries of non-EU investors.
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Following The Road Map Toward Quantum Security
With the Financial Conduct Authority’s recent publication of a white paper on a quantum-secure financial sector, firms should begin to consider the quantum transition early — before the process is driven by regulatory obligations — with the goal of developing a cybersecurity architecture that is agile while also allowing for quantum security, say lawyers at Cleary.
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Why EU Ruling On Beneficial Ownership May Affect The UK
Following the EU judgment in Sovim v. Luxembourg that public access to beneficial ownership information conflicts with data protection rights, several British overseas territories and dependencies have recently reversed their commitment to introduce unrestricted access, and challenges to the U.K.’s liberal stance may be on the cards, says Rupert Cullen at Allectus Law.
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Opinion
Labour Should Reconsider Its Discrimination Law Plans
While the Labour Party's recent proposals allowing equal pay claims based on ethnicity and disability, and introducing dual discrimination, have laudable intentions and bring some advantages, they are not the right path forward as the changes complicate the discrimination claim process for employees, say Colin Leckey and Tarun Tawakley at Lewis Silkin.
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AI Is Outpacing IP Law Frameworks
In Thaler v. Comptroller-General, the U.K. Supreme Court recently ruled that artificial intelligence can't be an inventor, but the discussion on the relationship between AI and intellectual property law is far from over, and it's clear that technology is developing faster than the legal framework, says Stephen Carter at The Intellectual Property Works.
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Tracing The History Of LGBTQ+ Rights In The Workplace
Pride History month is a timely reminder of how recent developments have shaped LGBTQ+ employees' rights in the workplace today, and what employers can do to ensure that employees are protected from discrimination, including creating safe workplace cultures and promoting allyship, say Caitlin Farrar and Jessica Bennett at Farrer.
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Ruling In FCA Case Offers Tips On Flexible Work Requests
In Wilson v. Financial Conduct Authority, the Employment Tribunal recently found that the regulator's rejection of a remote work request was justified, highlighting for employers factors that affect flexible work request outcomes, while emphasizing that individual inquiries should be considered on the specific facts, say Frances Rollin, Ella Tunnell and Kerry Garcia at Stevens & Bolton.
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Pension Scheme Ruling Elucidates Conversion Issues
In Newell Trustees v. Newell Rubbermaid UK Services, the High Court recently upheld a pension plan's conversion of final salary benefits to money purchase benefits, a welcome conclusion that considered several notable issues, such as how to construe pension deeds and when contracts made outside scheme rules can determine benefits, say Ian Gordon and Jamie Barnett at Gowling.
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New Fraud Prevention Offense May Not Make Much Difference
By targeting only large organizations, the Economic Crime Act's new failure to prevent fraud offense is striking in that, despite its breadth, it will affect so few companies, and is therefore unlikely to help ordinary victims, says Andrew Smith at Corker Binning.