The Freshfields Podcast

Three and a half years after the EU referendum, the UK has now left the European Union. Two of our antitrust partners, Alex Potter and Deba Das, explore the implications the UK’s departure from the EU will have for cross-border merger control, antitrust investigations and competition litigation during the transition period and beyond, and the steps that affected businesses should take to prepare.

The first episode of our new competition podcast, Essential Antitrust, explores the 10th edition of our annual analysis of the global antitrust landscape, 10 Key Themes.  

Podcast host Jenn Mellott, interviews Thomas Janssens, global head of our antitrust group, and Sarah Jensen, counsel in our London office, who discuss the major trends and developments we expect to see in 2020. View summary.

Several major sanctions and trade developments in late 2019 will continue to impact global commerce. In this podcast, Nabeel Yousef from our Washington DC office discusses major trends and developments from late 2019, including US sanctions on Venezuela, enforcement highlights, and the notice of proposed rule making for information and communications technology and services.

Listen to our podcast introducing the briefings which outline the legal and social issues affecting the protection of LGBT employees in multiple countries around the world.

We are proud to be Stonewall’s pro bono partner for their Global Workplace Equality Briefings, which outline the legal and social issues affecting the protection of LGBT employees in multiple countries around the world. Our lawyers and trusted StrongerTogether firms have worked hard to capture information for each country on the lived situation for LGBT people, the current legal framework and gaps in protection, and the challenges for employers who want to support their LGBT employees.

The resulting briefings are aimed at multinational organisations and provide high level advice to clients when planning their investment, global mobility, people and benefits strategies. You can find the regional and national briefings here.

In recent years, investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) has been accused of, among other things, bias towards investors, encroaching on state sovereignty, and being too slow and costly.

Gisèle Stephens-Chu, Joaquin P. Terceño, and Alex Wilbrahem examine the criticisms and how ISDS is changing in response, including procedural reforms, plans for a new investment court system and efforts to rebalance rights and obligations between states and investors.

In 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union made its landmark decision in Slovak Republic v. Achmea regarding the incompatibility with EU law of arbitration clauses contained in bilateral investment treaties (BITs) concluded between two EU member states. The judgment created uncertainty and confusion for investors wishing to rely on the protections these intra-EU BITs contained.

In our second international arbitration podcast, Boris Kasolowsky, Peter Turner QC and Desiree Prantl examine the background to this decision, its scope of application and what it means for the future of investment protection within the EU.

The Freshfields Hub is transforming how the firm delivers legal advice. Hear from the people who are driving the change.

Following a May election with the highest ever turnout (over 50 per cent), the new EU Commission is being formed. The Freshfields EU regulatory and public affairs team in Brussels offer insights on the new Commission’s priorities, including money laundering, digitalisation and sustainability.

What trends have we seen in the biggest US public M&A deals since 2015?

US M&A partners Peter Lyons and Matthew Herman discuss the results of their survey of the merger agreements for the top 40 US domestic and inbound deals by value over the last four years. They explore various aspects of these agreements, including deal leaks, risk allocation, changes in regulation and the effects of CFIUS.

There is growing debate in Europe about the ethics of data use. But does the topic get as much attention elsewhere in the world? We gathered a team of experts in Washington, London and Hong Kong to find out.