More than 5 per cent of firms are facing forced closure by the SRA after failing to find insurance cover, risk experts claim, amid fears that practising certificate fees could jump to deal with rising intervention costs. The volume of potential closures has thrown questions over the ability of the watchdog to fund such a […]
Six law firms have been named by the London Stock Exchange as part of 1,000 inspiring British businesses. Take a bow, Bates Wells & Braithwaite, Berrymans Lace Mawer, Matthew Arnold & Baldwin, Stewarts Law, the London office of Edwards Wildman Palmer and Preston-based Fletchers Solicitors. Bates Wells & Braithwaite, MAB and Stewarts named as ‘inspiring’ […]
The UK government announced late last year that it would seek to make arrangements for the automatic exchange of information with its overseas territories. The UK’s legislation is modelled after and applies similar information sharing techniques to those incorporated in the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA); such arrangements have come to be known as […]
DLA Piper has advised Safestyle UK, a retailer and manufacturer of PVCu windows and doors for the UK homeowner replacement market, on a £77m placing on London’s AIM market. The company has grown since its founding in 1992 to become the largest company in the UK homeowner window and door replacement market, manufacturing 232,000 frames in […]
The European Commission has announced its plans to both reshape the simplified merger notification process within the framework of the EUMR in order to extend the option of simplified notification to more merging businesses and to reduce the administrative burden on all merger notifications, with effect from 1 January 2014. This will bring benefits for […]
By Jeffrey L Hare, Christopher N Steelman and Evan R Minsberg Five federal financial regulatory agencies have released final rules implementing section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Section 619 created section 13 in the Bank Holding Company Act (BHC Act) to generally prohibit any banking entity from engaging in […]
By Michael F Patton The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has published for comment two draft revenue procedures that change the existing process for US taxpayers requesting Competent Authority relief under the mutual agreement procedures (MAPs) and other provisions of US income tax treaties (or similar agreements) and that would change the procedures applicable to advance […]
By Ágata Uceda The Dutch Ministry of Finance has released a new transfer pricing decree that is already in effect. The new decree, announced in late November, supersedes two earlier decrees, that of 30 March 2001 (IFZ 2001/295) and that of 21 August 2004 (IFZ2004/680M). Other transfer pricing decrees are not modified by this new […]
Over the last few years, major power projects such as offshore wind and nuclear new build have increasingly been procured on a multi-contract basis. In a multi-contract scenario, each contractor takes responsibility for the delivery of its own scope of works only and no single contractor has overall responsibility for delivery of the project as […]
Chinese investment into Europe is continuing apace, and law firms are keen to make every effort to grab a piece of the action. While few have gone quite as far as SJ Berwin, merging with Sino-Australian firm King & Wood Mallesons last month, more and more are trying to get a foothold in the East. […]
Two challenges to decisions of the secretary of state were heard by Mr Justice Lewis in respect of the ‘Tetbury appeals’ in which planning permission was granted for housing development within the Area of National Beauty in the Cotswolds. The secretary of state was represented by Richard Kimblin in both sets of proceedings. Hannick had […]
If one party to a contract threatens not to perform their obligations (i.e. repudiates the contract), the innocent party has significantly different options depending on whether they are able to raise court proceedings north or south of the border. In many respects, the law of contract in Scotland and England is substantially the same. The […]