Expert Analysis

• What Growing Focus On ESG Means For Insurers

  

  As the world pays steadily more attention to environmental, social and governance issues, insurers and reinsurers will need to integrate ESG risks into their underwriting and compliance efforts, but doing so will help attract consumers and achieve positive investment returns, say attorneys at Debevoise.

• Finance Firms May See Increased FCA Enforcement This Year

  

  Financial firms will likely see increased investigation and enforcement actions from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority following Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, including in the areas of financial crime, customer protection, operational resilience and conduct, says Tracey Dovaston at Boies Schiller.

• UK Supreme Court Ruling Clarifies Arbitrator Bias Standard

  

  The U.K. Supreme Court's judgment in Halliburton v. Chubb, likely the court's most important decision in the area of international arbitration in the past decade, articulates important guidelines for how English courts will police issues of arbitrator disclosure and bias, even as it fuels concerns among insurance policyholders, say Allan Moore and Ramon Luque at Covington.

• Evaluating Ethical And Legal Risk In Ransomware Payments

  

  Deciding whether to pay the demanded ransom during a cyberattack is complex and requires a careful balancing of the risks to the firm's business against the reputational and regulatory risks, but companies can also prepare for this eventuality by taking concrete steps now, say Rob Dedman and Kim Roberts at King & Spalding.

• How Climate, Finance And Trade Will Intersect In 2021

  

  In the coming year, the Biden administration will likely align its policies on climate change, finance and trade more closely with those of international partners and organizations, leading to more coordinated action on climate standards that will be applied across the global economy, say consultants at C&M International.

• Perspectives

  Finding A Path Forward To Regulate The Legal Industry

  

  Gerald Knapton at Ropers Majeski analyzes U.S. and U.K. experiments to explore alternative business structures and independent oversight for law firms, which could lead to innovative approaches to increasing access to legal services.

• Whether And How To Compel Remote Arbitration

  Excerpt from Practical Guidance

  

  As the pandemic delays in-person arbitration hearings, mediator and arbitrator Theodore Cheng provides arbitrators with a checklist to examine the rationale and authority for compelling parties to participate in remote hearings.

• Creditors Welcome UK Supreme Court's Reflective Loss Decision

  

  The U.K. Supreme Court's recent Sevilleja v. Marex decision benefits creditors and other stakeholders by excluding their claims from the reflective loss principle, which precludes third-party complaints that merely reflect company loss, say Robert Fidoe and Jack Moulder at Watson Farley.

• How Courts Are Encouraging Mediation In England And Wales

  

  As the judiciary braces for widespread pandemic-driven contractual disputes, courts in England and Wales are showing enthusiastic support for mediation, both when determining the implications of a party's refusal to mediate and when assessing whether normal restrictions on the use of mediation-derived information apply, says Leah Alpren-Waterman at Watson Farley.

• Opinion

  EU Class Action Policy Guided By Wrong Measure Of Success

  

  The political agreement obtained last month on the first European Union-wide rules on collective redress illustrates the fact that the main goal of the authorities is to increase the number of class action claims rather than focus on the application of standard civil liability principles, says Sylvie Gallage-Alwis at Signature Litigation.

• An Attractive Regime For Governing Jurisdiction Post-Brexit

  

  As indicated by the U.K.'s recent application to join the Lugano Convention, this is an "oven-ready" option for the U.K. for governing questions of jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments with European Union countries after Brexit — but not without important differences from the current regime, say attorneys at Latham.

• Reinsurance Implications Of COVID-19 Biz Interruption Laws

  

  In light of legislative and public pressure in the U.S. and U.K. on insurers to cover business interruption losses related to COVID-19, reinsurers will face new questions regarding their obligation to cover claim payments, say Robin Dusek at Saul Ewing and Susie Wakefield at Shoosmiths.

• UK Appellate Rulings Clarify Arbitral Choice Of Law

  

  Two recent U.K. Court of Appeal decisions have changed the operation of the choice-of-law test for arbitration — a resolution as significant as changing the test itself because it affects the implied choices of the contracting parties, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

• Post-Pandemic Litigation To Expect In England And Wales

  

  Globally, we are already starting to see insolvency-related claims and a number of insurance, breach of ‎contract, employment and securities class actions across numerous sectors. These and other claims will likely increase for U.K. businesses, say Tracey Dovaston and Fiona Huntriss at Boies Schiller.

• UK Lawyers Can Adapt Due Diligence To Screen New Clients

  

  As COVID-19-related fraud gains pace, U.K.-based practitioners should help combat money laundering by using alternative methods to verify that new clients are who they say they are, says Christopher Convey, a barrister at 33 Chancery Lane and chair of the Bar Council's Money Laundering Working Group.