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This briefing was updated on 7 January 2021 to reflect the UK-EU trade deal.

Parties to free trade agreements (FTAs) typically recognise that movement of people is necessary to facilitate trade, particularly for services businesses. However, they are often reluctant to dispense with requirements imposed by their own domestic immigration regimes.

Our regular round-up of recent developments and topics for your radar, news on training and networking events for in-house counsel, and an update on our legal tech initiatives.

We believe it is of paramount importance to protect and develop the alternatives asset management industry in the UK following our exit from the EU in order to maintain the UK's status as a world leader in the sector and to ensure that the wider economy continues to benefit from the deployment of global capital across alternatives asset classes by UK based managers.

Brexit is now firmly back on the agenda for employers as we head into the final months before the Brexit Transition period ends on 31 December 2020.

If you are a UK employer, with employees working in the EU, EEA or Switzerland, the country in which social security contributions are paid on their salary and benefits is currently set by EU Social Security Coordination rules.

With the headlines dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, anyone could have been forgiven for putting Brexit to the back of their mind over the past few months. However, the UK is rapidly approaching the end of the transition period, at which point, amongst many other issues, it is highly likely that there will be disruption to goods supply chains.

With disruption to goods supply chains widely expected at the end of the Brexit transition period on 1 January 2021, businesses which rely on goods from the EU are increasingly re-focussing on contingency plans to stockpile goods. However, finding additional warehousing space is likely to be challenging.

The UK Government's decision to introduce legislation which would effectively override some aspects of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement has gone down badly with the EU. Does this mean that businesses need to prepare for no deal at the end of the transition?

This briefing note addresses the impact of Brexit on matters relevant to civil judicial co-operation between the English courts and the courts of EU member states.

Key employment and business immigration developments for employers.

Update December 2022: This article has been updated, primarily to reflect revised rules on timing of mandatory application of the CA Mark, released in November 2022. 

The Government has launched a short consultation on proposals to allow courts below the Supreme Court (including potentially the High Court and the Employment Appeal Tribunal) to diverge from EU retained case law after the end of the transition period. If the status quo is preserved, only the Supreme Court would be able to do so.

The UK Government is consulting on proposals to allow lower courts to diverge from EU caselaw which predates the end of the transition period. This is potentially significant for many areas of law as it could speed up the process of divergence from the EU after the end of the transition period.

The public statements made by Brexit negotiators David Frost and Michel Barnier last week suggest that the latest round of Brexit negotiations has resulted in minimal progress on the key issues separating the UK and EU. 

National governments across the EU have provided significant financial aid to support companies in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. Ordinarily, many of these measures would fall foul of EU state aid rules and be open to legal challenge – but the EU has introduced a temporary framework to permit such measures to be taken.

Collective experience has illustrated how impactful periods of volatility in foreign exchange rates can be for managers of funds with currency exposures. Such exposures can arise as a result of a multi-jurisdictional investor base, cross border transactions or assets held in underlying portfolios which are denominated in a different currency to the base currency of the fund.

With the Brexit transition period due to expire on 31 December 2020, there is not much time left to prepare.

Key employment and business immigration developments for employers.

On 6 July 2020, the UK Government enacted the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020 ("Sanction Regulations"), which is secondary legislation made under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 ("SAMLA"). This marks the first time that the UK has independently sanctioned people or organisations for human rights violations and abuses under a UK-only regime. Although limited in scope at this stage, there are already calls to increase the number of individuals and organisations who are targeted by the new 'Magnitsky' style sanctions regime.