Sky Blog
One of the most difficult challenges for cybersecurity professionals is the increasing complexity of corporate systems. Mergers, vendor integrations, new software tools and remote work all expand the footprint of companies’ information systems, creating a larger attack surface for hackers. …
Stewardship has, along with sustainability, social equality, biodiversity, and climate risk management, emerged in recent years as a favorite buzzword in corporate governance and investment management circles. But the language used by investors to express stewardship objectives and practices varies …
The meteoric global rise of ESG investing is increasingly being met with an equally ambitious regulatory disclosure regime, and, targeting greenwashing, policymakers are beginning to bare their teeth. In the latest salvo, on 25 May the US Securities and Exchange …
What makes the corporate laws of some jurisdictions more attractive for entrepreneurs and investors than others in the global arena? Within the United States, the competition among state laws is a popular explanation for Delaware’s corporate law prominence. However, interjurisdictional …
On January 4, the UK’s new National Security and Investment filing regime became fully operational. A wide range of deals will be scrutinized for national security concerns requiring further investigation. The UK government expects to review up to 1,800 cases …
Antitrust regulators around the world, including in the UK, have recently proposed changes to merger review policies and enforcement strategies that have implications for how acquisitions of start-ups are investigated and evaluated. These changes will likely lead to heightened scrutiny—and …
The special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, is a company with no commercial or operating history that has listed on a stock exchange with the sole objective of raising financing to identify and acquire another company. SPACs developed after the …
On November 30, 2021, the UK’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), found that the completed acquisition by Facebook, Inc. (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) of GIPHY, Inc. resulted in a substantial lessening of competition (SLC…
Although the United States inherited its common law legal system from the United Kingdom, the U.S. securities class actions jurisprudence is well advanced of the development of this area of law in the United Kingdom. With the first major collective …
When should directors be held liable for their company’s distressed financial condition? In a recent article, we show that the answer varies widely across legal regimes. We focus on the zone of insolvency, a phase in the company’s life …
In the wake of the landmark judgment in Schrems II in July 2020 (which invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield with immediate effect) (as reported by us here), the European Commission has recently adopted a number of hotly anticipated (at …
Mass claimant litigation is on the rise in the English courts, with multinational companies in particular facing ever-growing exposure. While large class action suits are relatively common in jurisdictions such as the United States and Australia, until recently these actions …
On July 27, 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published a policy statement that includes final rules amending the UK Listing Rules, and new associated guidance, applicable to special purpose acquisition companies (“SPACs”).[1] The new …
In a recent working paper, I explore the intersection of contemporary corporate governance and transnational law. Transnational law is, of course, far from a settled concept. For early theorists, it involved conduct or events that crossed national boundaries. More recent …
On March 5, 2021, LIBOR’s administrator, ICE Benchmarks Administration (the “IBA”), and LIBOR’s regulator, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”), announced that LIBOR will no longer be provided (i) for all sterling, euro, Swiss franc and Japanese yen settings, …
On July 27, 2021 the FCA published a policy statement setting out its planned amendments to the Listing Rules to remove the presumption of suspension that applies to special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) when a potential acquisition target is identified …
The Financial Conduct Authority recently announced a proposal for a climate-related financial disclosure regime for UK asset managers, as well as life insurers and FCA-regulated pension providers. This is an important step in the United Kingdom’s implementation of a regime …
Firms are coming under increasing pressure to close and disclose their gender pay gaps. The pressure stems from several sources, including, (i) socially conscious investors; (ii) interest groups advocating the incorporation of ESG factors into corporate decision-making and stakeholder capitalism …
Screen scraping – the technique of automatically collecting, parsing, and organizing data from the web – has over the past two decades been used for everything from targeted advertising to price aggregation to academic research. It can, however, be detrimental …
On April 26, 2021, the United Kingdom implemented a new sanctions regime that allows the UK government to impose asset freezes on public officials and other persons involved in serious corruption. The regime replaces, and expands, the Misappropriation of State …