<p>Filter Knowledge</p>

One of your employees has left to work for a competitor. You suspect that they have taken a copy of your customer database with them.

With both the public and private sectors looking to cut costs and "do more with less", outsourcing is often seen as a solution. This briefing highlights how customers of outsourcing providers can avoid some of the major pitfalls.

It's easily done: following months of negotiations, a draft contract is ready for signature but other things take priority, work begins and the contract never gets signed. Six months later, a dispute arises – but, as the draft hasn't been signed, it isn't binding.

Possibly to the embarrassment of the Home Office, the Abu Qatada deportation case provides a useful reminder of the ambiguities inherent in many commonly-used expressions of time in legal documents.

On 1 June 2007, after years of hard fought political lobbying, the EU's Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) finally came into force. Viewed by many as the most complex piece of EU legislation to date, REACH changes how chemicals will be made, imported and used within the EU.

The UK Bribery Act will have a significant impact on many foreign companies when it comes into force in July 2011 because of its extra-territorial reach. A foreign company which carries on any "part of a business" in the UK could be prosecuted under the Bribery Act for failing to prevent bribery committed by any of its employees, agents or other representatives, even if the bribery takes place outside the UK and involves non-UK persons.

At Travers Smith, diversity and creating an inclusive workplace is valuable to us and to our clients. 

Asset owners, as well as intermediaries in the financial services sector, are becoming increasingly proactive in their pursuit of sustainable finance strategies. This is often driven by a genuine desire to move towards more ethical and responsible investment; but increasingly, it is also a necessary commercial response to the demands of clients.

Sustainability is rising rapidly up the pensions agenda because of a mix of changing law, regulatory guidance, and growing demand from pension scheme members and other stakeholders.

Sustainable finance is of rapidly-growing importance as increasing regulatory pressures and demand from investors promote the incorporation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investment strategies.

Sustainability, CSR environmental, social and governance (ESG) and other responsible investment considerations are now firmly on the agenda for corporates as well as investors. Keeping abreast of the increasingly broad legal and regulatory framework governing these issues, as well as managing reputational risk, represents an enormous governance challenge for businesses.

The rapid global spread of the Covid-19 virus has resulted in significant market volatility and is placing an immense strain on the business community.

At Travers Smith, good corporate governance is important to us and to our clients. Find out how we are approaching corporate governance in our own business. An accountable and inclusive corporate governance structure is an important feature of sustainable businesses.

Climate change will be the challenge of our generation. To transition our economy, based around fossil fuels and carbon since the Industrial Revolution, presents a significant test of resolve for industry and wider society.