The UK Supreme Court recently handed down its hotly-anticipated judgment in the business interruption insurance test case (FCA v Arch and others [2021] UKSC 1). The judgment extends, in certain respects, findings in favour of certain policyholders of business interruption insurance made by the High Court. In this client alert, Jumana Rahman, Thomas Shortland, and Charlotte Ritchie focus on the implications of the Supreme Court judgment for causation issues in insurance law and the wider law and address the consequences of the judgment for various key stakeholders.

On January 1, 2021, the Senate and the House of Representatives voted to override President Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, which introduced legislation that allows federal oversight for transactions involving antiquities and contains other provisions affecting the art market at large. In this C&G client alert, Christian Everdell and Barbara Luse discuss the impact of the new legislation and explore the question of what’s next for arts and antiquities businesses involved in high-value transactions.

In his latest column for Federal Bar Council Quarterly, C Evan Stewart highlights two judicial decisions, one by the Chief Justice of the United States and another by an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, which serve as bookends to help better understand President Lincoln’s track record on constitutional rights during the prosecution of the Civil War.

Daniel H Tabak and Drew S Dean discuss the opinion of Magistrate Judge Gorenstein of the Southern District of New York in Revive Investing LLC v. FBC Holdings S.A.R.L. After finding that a prior settlement agreement between the defendant and different plaintiffs was valid and contained a release that precluded the claim at issue, Judge Gorenstein recommended the grant of summary judgment to the defendant in a Section 16(b) “short-swing profit” action. Dan and Drew go on to explore the future implications of Judge Gorenstein’s opinion and explain what this will mean for Section 16(b) litigants going forward.

Non-U.S. banks that maintain correspondent accounts in the United States face the prospect of significantly broader subpoenas from the Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury as a result of the newly passed Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (“AMLA”), which became law on January 1, 2021 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021. These new subpoenas represent a major expansion of the DOJ and Treasury’s investigative reach, but they are not without limitations.  This client alert examines the expanded subpoena authority under the AMLA, as well as potential ways in which non-U.S. banks can seek to limit or quash these subpoenas.

Nous profitons de notre première Newsletter de l’année pour vous présenter tous nos vœux pour cette nouvelle année qui s’annonce encore un peu particulière. L’activité partielle, l’APLD (activité partielle de longue durée) et le télétravail, qui sont devenus au gré de la crise sanitaire, incontournables en 2020, resteront des sujets d’actualité en 2021. Nous vous proposons d’analyser les principales nouveautés concernant ces dispositifs, sans oublier notre analyse des décisions qui ont marqué 2020.

Although a detailed Brexit agreement has been reached between the UK and the EU on trade in goods and certain services, further work remains on the treatment of financial services.  The EU must determine which UK financial rules and their applications will be deemed “equivalent” to EU rules, and therefore to what extent UK-based financial services firms will be able to operate in Europe.

With the shift to remote working and the convenience of chat applications for conducting business, it is critical for firms to understand that information relevant to their business may be created on personal devices and applications. The UK FCA’s failed prosecution of an investment banker for destroying WhatsApp messages taken together with the FCA’s ‘Market Watch 66’ publication highlighting the need to control electronic communications is a reminder to firms to address staff use of personal chat applications to conduct business.

Muriel Goldberg-Darmon and Guillaume Guérin discuss the 2020 recommendations made by the French AMF (France’s financial markets regulator) during the pandemic regarding the handling of financial communications for publicly traded companies. In this article, Muriel and Guillaume explore the lessons that public companies can learn from such recommendations.

In this article for the Financial Times, Miriam González Durántez explains how the Brexit trade agreement could serve as a powerful catalyst for the European Union to become an accelerator of European businesses, not just a regulator of them, as it looks to compete with the United Kingdom post-Brexit. (Subscription required.)

Congress recently enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”), requiring millions of domestic and foreign businesses to disclose information about their beneficial owners to the federal government. In this C&G client alert, our Government Relations practice summarizes the major provisions of the CTA, considers the implications of the law on domestic and foreign entities, and provides analysis on some areas that may be shaped by the forthcoming implementing regulations.

On December 24, 2020, the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK) reached a Brexit trade and partnership agreement after months of negotiations. The agreement avoids the possibility of a ‘chaotic Brexit’, but falls well short of ensuring the continuity of frictionless trade between the EU and the UK. In this C&G client alert, we briefly consider the regulatory impact this deal will have on various industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, aviation, energy, education, and security and defense.

In this C&G client alert, Bonnie Roe and Cody Lipton discuss recent statements from the SEC that highlight the importance of “good corporate hygiene” in regulating purchases and sales of stock by the company and its officers and directors, and they analyze the impact of a changing regulatory environment on the design and implementation of 10b5-1 plans.

Muriel Goldberg-Darmon discusses the protection of shareholders’ rights during general meetings held behind closed doors due to the pandemic.

In this C&G client alert, Jumana Rahman, Thomas Shortland, and Charlotte Ritchie consider the outlook for business interruption policyholders and insurers in the wake of judgment in the FCA’s test case, and take a look at what the insurance community has learned so far about COVID-19 and business interruption insurance.

Miriam Gonzalez Durantez explores the current state of Brexit and the impact that the upcoming U.S. and French elections could have on a trade agreement between the UK and the EU.

In this C&G client alert, Christian Everdell and Barbara Luse discuss a recent congressional report released by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that exposes how Russian oligarchs looking to evade U.S. sanctions are able to exploit loopholes in the art industry and calls for more regulation in a notoriously opaque industry which, according to the report’s findings, undermines one of the most fundamental tools that U.S. administrations use to pressure foreign governments against “bad behavior.”

Muriel Goldberg-Darmon discusses recent French rules which strengthen France’s control over foreign investment in French companies listed on Euronext Paris.

In this C&G client alert, Jumana Rahman, Thomas Shortland, and Charlotte Ritchie discuss the legal and practical implications of the UK Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the reflective loss principle in Sevilleja v Marex.

In his latest column for Federal Bar Council Quarterly, C Evan Stewart revisits the U.S. Supreme Court infamous decisions in the Insular Cases.