REUTERS | Maxim Shemetov
October 6, 2020

Does legal advice privilege extend to foreign non-regulated or non-registered in-house lawyers?

In 1859, the then Vice Chancellor Sir Richard Kindersley held in Lawrence v Campbell that:

“…The general principle is founded upon this, that the exigencies of mankind require that in matters of business, which may lead to litigation, men should be enabled to communicate freely with their professional advisers, and their communications should be held confidential and sacred, and that no one should have a right to their production.”

Does such a right to legal advice privilege extend to foreign lawyers, and if so, to in-house foreign lawyers that are neither said to be registered or regulated in their own jurisdiction?

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REUTERS | Yuriko Nakao
October 1, 2020

It’s not me, it’s you: terminating English law contracts

Terminating any relationship can be painful. For contractual parties, an incorrect or even careless termination may result in costly legal consequences. Two recent cases highlight the development around this body of law and serve as an aide-mémoire of the principles underpinning termination under English law:

  • Bains v Arunvill Capital Ltd reminds parties committing remediable breaches, those which are deemed cured if remedied within a specific time period, that a mere expression of an intention to carry out (as opposed to the actual performance of) contractual obligations (and where those obligations are so apparent) will not be enough to remedy a material breach.
  • Attorney General of the Virgin Islands v Global Water Associates Ltd reminds parties seeking to terminate and recover “lost profit” damages of the requirement for such losses not to be too remote. In such cases, courts will look particularly at the parties’ specific knowledge and expectations at the time of formation of the specific contract.

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REUTERS | Yuya Shino
September 30, 2020

Disclosure Pilot Scheme: a potential way forward?

On Tuesday 22 September 2020, Flaux LJ (Chair of the Disclosure Working Group) published an update on the operation of the Disclosure Pilot Scheme (DPS). It was accompanied by the long-awaited publication of the Third Interim Report on the DPS, dated 25 February 2020 and prepared by Professor Rachael Mulheron (of Queen Mary University of London), who has been monitoring the DPS from its start in January 2019. The update also outlined a number of proposed amendments to the DPS, which are expected to be considered by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee at its October 2020 meeting.

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