Corporate crime specialists are divided over the likely impact of Lord Justice Leveson’s approval of the UK’s Serious Fraud Office’s deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with ICBC Standard Bank (formerly Standard Bank).
Continue reading “Mixed reviews over impact of first SFO deferred prosecution agreement”
Regulatory partners expect a busy 2016 as EY figures show UK regulators have ramped up the number of fines and sentencing for corporate wrongdoing.
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) is advising ICBC Standard Bank on its deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) – the first deal to be struck since DPAs came into force in February 2014.
Continue reading “Plea pioneers: HSF advises bank on first deferred prosecution agreement with SFO”
Many of us watched the Chancellor’s Spending Review speech because of controversial proposals such as cuts in tax credits for the low paid. He gave us a pleasing U-turn on that. Then he surprised us all with an attack on lawyers and victims of accidents. Don’t ask me what this had to do with a review of public spending.
Continue reading “Guest post: Osborne’s bizarre personal injury proposals”
While a decision to backtrack on tax credit cuts stole the limelight in the Autumn Statement today (November 25), Chancellor George Osborne revealed further cuts to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), plans to close 91 courts and curbs on aggressive PI firms pursuing road accident claims.
A potential government crackdown on tax savings made by consultants through ‘personal service companies (PSCs)’, could have negative implications for contract lawyer services such as Addleshaw Goddard’s Integrate, Pinsent Masons Vario and Allen & Overy’s Peerpoint, as well as BLP’s Lawyers on Demand.
Continue reading “Firms assess options ahead of potential crackdown on contract lawyer tax loophole”
Two quotes on legal professional privilege caught my eye this week. First this from two lawyers at Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) about the decision in Property Alliance Group Limited v The Royal Bank of Scotland.
Continue reading “Guest post: Privilege Games – In advisers we trust?”
The first, and most important, thing to remind everyone before I dissect the events of the last few weeks is that there is still no stain on the character of former Chief Legal Ombudsman Adam Sampson.
It was a decision never likely to sit well with the public defence profession and so it proved.
The ongoing saga over the reduced number of criminal legal aid contracts continues as it has emerged that the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, is facing legal challenges from around 100 firms at the High Court to prevent execution of the contracts.
New justice secretary Michael Gove is set for a tussle with City lawyers after floating a plan to impose a multimillion-pound tax on commercial law firms to pay for the abolition of a controversial criminal court charge on guilty defendants.
Gove’s plan has been proposed as a means to replace the revenues generated by the court charge that was supposed to bring in between £65m and £90m annually. A report in The Times in October said that a 1% levy has been floated as a means of appeasing the Treasury. Such a levy on the top 100 UK firms, which have combined revenues of £20.64bn, would potentially generate more than £200m annually but promises to ignite controversy over arbitrary taxation of one industry.
