The Freshfields Podcast

On July 9, 2021, President Biden signed a far-reaching executive order aimed at promoting competition in the American economy.

With directives covering a dozen agencies and establishing a new White House Competition Counsel, the Executive Order will impact many different sectors, including technology, healthcare, agriculture, labor, and beyond.  At the same time, there are several antitrust developments in the US that suggest that political interest in antitrust is not going away any time soon, and even more reform efforts are likely to be on the horizon.

In our 14^th episode, podcast host Jenn Mellott speaks with Bruce McCulloch and Justin Stewart-Teitelbaum to discuss these developments and what they mean for businesses.

Earlier this year, Russia slowed down Twitter in a row over content. Now, a new law requires any foreign tech company above a certain size to have a presence on Russian soil. With the US imposing sanctions over concerns about ransomware and misinformation - and Moscow armed with the power to fine major tech firms up to 20 per cent of global revenues - operating between East and West has never been more challenging. In our latest episode of View from the Valley, our teams in Menlo Park, New York and Moscow explain how to navigate this fast-changing landscape

As payment-systems users are able to connect with businesses and individuals in other countries, at the tap of a screen, there is a rapidly growing need for those payment-systems to keep pace.

The infrastructure for cross-border payments has struggled to keep up with the demand for efficient and more closely integrated payment methods that support these developments. The key question is whether new technologies will be able to assist in improving the quality and speed of cross-border payments whilst making the infrastructure future-proof and safe?

In this podcast, Matt O’Callaghan (Head of Financial Services Asia), Stephan Pachinger (Finance and Capital Markets Partner) and Charlotte Witherington (Senior Associate, Financial Services) discuss the international efforts to improve cross-border payments, with a particular focus on the responses of Asia, the EU and the UK.  They also take a look at the roles that digital payments, central bank digital currencies and stablecoins may play in shaping the future of money.

In last year’s Budget, Rishi Sunak unveiled plans to require big businesses to proactively disclose information on the grey areas in their tax returns. Following significant pushback, the government responded with a series of changes, yet with the proposals applying to returns filed after April there is still a lot of uncertainty. In the latest episode of our Tax Matters podcast, Josh Critchlow is joined by partners Sarah Bond and Paul Davison to discuss where the plans are now – and how companies should respond.

Arbitration Insider is a podcast series focusing on international arbitration produced by the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC) and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. 

In this second episode, co-hosts Rekha Rangachari, Executive Director of NYIAC, and Olivier André, Client Relationship Advisor at Freshfields, focus on anticipated disputes in 2021 arising out of but not limited to the pandemic, engaging on themes of evolution and dynamism that permeate global disputes practices.

Conversations with outside and in-house counsel and leaders of arbitral institutions spotlight changes within both international commercial and investment treaty arbitration with a look to industry trends and forthcoming disputes allied with arbitral institutional caseloads and rules revisions, each buttressing a broader world view on the state of play.

Podcast guests include Lea Haber Kuck (International Litigation and Arbitration Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP), Hagit M. Elul (International Arbitration Partner, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP), Noah Rubins, QC (International Disputes, Litigation & Arbitration Partner, Freshfields), Patricia Garcia (Senior Legal Counsel, VINCI), Natalí Sequeira (Team Leader & Legal Counsel, International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes), and Luis M. Martinez (Vice President, American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution).

Reference materials:

• Freshfields’ International Arbitration in 2021: Illuminating Top Trends
• Hughes Hubbard Reed COVID-19 Resource Center
• VINCI Airports – Traffic 2020 Press Release
• ICSID Rules and Regulation Amendments – Working Papers
• ICSID-UNCITRAL Code of Conduct for Adjudicators in International Investment Disputes
• ICDR 2021 International Rules Amendments

Many stakeholders have applauded the European Commission for its European Green Deal programme. But a key question remains: who will pay for green transformation of the EU’s economy? Most businesses will not be able to finance the transition themselves and entire industries are calling for more public funding.

In our 13^th episode, podcast host Jenn Mellott speaks with Merit Olthoff and Christiaan Smits about the enormous 2050 climate neutral objective the European Union has set itself and how sustainable finance and state aid will play a role in funding green transition.

In this podcast in our series on market conduct topics intended for a financial services audience, Tim Mak in Hong Kong, Altin Sila in New York, Dan Newton in London and Anne-Laure Vincent in Paris discuss the insider dealing regimes in the key financial centres and some key differences between them, using US case law as a springboard.

The pandemic has left parties to long-term contracts in arrangements that are no longer commercially viable.

Some have been able to agree on revised terms with their counterparties relatively quickly and easily. For others, the process has been more formal and prolonged, and involved considering the contract-renegotiation law of the applicable jurisdiction.

In this second podcast in our ‘Rethinking the supply chain’ series, Kate Gough, Moritz Becker and Tim Harkness from our dispute resolution practice discuss the legal framework for renegotiating contracts under the laws of England and Wales, Germany and the US, and the common mis-steps that negotiators make.   

ESG has risen up the corporate agenda, driven by a combination of investor activism, government regulation, climate change, societal issues and shifts in the way companies think about governance.

In this episode, Teresa Ko, Tim Wilkins, Keith Pogson and Ninette Dodoo compare board diversity initiatives in Hong Kong and the US and look at how each market is pivoting companies toward diverse boards and challenging companies to do better on this key governance metric.

The discussion covers the unique challenges facing Hong Kong, the actions being taken to improve board diversity and the key risks for companies that do not embrace change.

In the United Arab Emirates, there is no general duty for employees to disclose wrongdoing in a company, but as the podcast participants highlight, introducing effective speak up programs and whistleblowing protections are essential to well-functioning compliance programs and to mitigate risks.

 

Freshfields’ global investigations lawyer Zara Merali in Dubai is joined by Patrick Meaney, Head of Enforcement at the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), Anjam Jalal, Associate Director, Enforcement at the DFSA, and Shiraz Sethi, Regional Head of Employment at Dentons to discuss the challenges, laws, best practices and future directions of whistleblowing in the UAE and the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), with Patrick and Anjam providing a regulatory point of view.