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19 February 2025
Issue: 8105 / Categories: Legal News , International , Legal services , Sanctions , Regulatory
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Expect permanent disruption to cross-border deals, warns report

Cross-border deals are becoming more uncertain, costly and challenging for senior in-house counsel at major multinationals.

That’s the thrust of a report, ‘GeoDisruption: balancing gigawatts, gigabytes and gigapowers’, published this week by Lex Mundi, a membership organisation of 150 law firms. It anticipates that global turmoil will increase and will require earlier, more complex legal advice for boards and management teams.

It identifies three key areas of regulation—sanctions, which can create hidden risks within supply chains and generate litigation; geo-economic risk, which can block or delay deals; and supply chain disclosure rules, which increase compliance costs.

Helena Samaha, CEO and president of Lex Mundi, said: ‘One silver lining may be innovation in technology and AI, but legal teams still need structured, high-value, legal risk management support from their law firms.’  

MOVERS & SHAKERS

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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