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In their recent "In Practice" article, "The initial margin "big bang": the aftermath", Derivatives & Structured Products Partner Joseph Wren and Derivatives & Structured Products Associate Nick Morgan consider the key issues and challenges that remain for buy-side entities following the final phase-in of initial margin requirements under EMIR and UK EMIR. If your business is impacted by any of the topics considered in this briefing, please do get in touch with the authors or your usual Travers Smith contact.

In The University of Dundee v Chakraborty [2023] CISH 22, the Scottish Court of Session considered the privilege status of an early unpublished version of an internal investigation report, which had been amended and reissued following the receipt of legal advice, and then disclosed in its final form in Employment Tribunal proceedings. The Court held, in a decision which, albeit Scottish, is binding on all UK Employment Tribunals, that the early version of the report was not privileged.

Even the CEOs of the big AI firms, like Sam Altman of OpenAI (the developers of ChatGPT), say that AI needs regulating, but there is very little consensus about how to go about regulating it. Governments across the globe are grappling with how to balance promoting innovation and economic growth with protecting citizens' privacy, safety and other human rights.

As businesses invest more heavily in AI, what intellectual property challenges are they likely to encounter? How do we avoid AI have a "chilling" effect on human creativity and enable rightsholders to guard against their intellectual creations being scraped to train AI without their consent?

• Following the Home Secretary's statement on 23 May 2023, if an international student's course start date is on or after 1 January 2024, they are no longer permitted to bring dependants unless the course is a PhD, other doctoral qualification, or a research-based higher degree. The ability for international students to switch out of the student route into work routes before their studies have been completed has also now been removed.

The Building Safety Act 2022 overhauls the existing health and safety regulations for residential buildings and is intended to give residents more rights, powers and protections. One aspect of this new regime is that owners of higher-risk residential buildings must register them with the Building Safety Regulator by 1 October 2023.

On 29 June 2023, having completed its passage through parliament, the Financial Services and Markets Bill received Royal Assent.

Key employment and business immigration developments for employers

The doctrine of separability under English law means that an arbitration clause is separate from the underlying agreement. In turn, this means that the law governing the obligations of the underlying contract can be different to the law governing the arbitration agreement.

There's now a new route to transfer personal data to the US under EU GDPR – for the time being at least. On 10 July 2023 the European Commission adopted its adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (DPF).  Max Schrems has already said that it will be challenged in the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) and so this is unlikely to mark the end to the uncertainty that has hung over international data transfers since Schrems II.  This briefing looks at the implications of the adequacy decision.       

In Part 2 of our discussion with Seb Akbik from UNPRI on Tax, ESG and Sustainability we explore some of the theoretical tensions and practical difficulties which can arise in establishing "good tax governance"; the differing approaches which organisations have adopted; and some examples of steps which businesses could take to develop good tax governance.

The recent (so far, unsuccessful) action brought by activist environmental charity ClientEarth against the directors of Shell highlights concerns around whether boards of UK companies are taking sufficient account of the wider environmental and social impacts of their decision-making and activities. In this article, we look at some of the arguments for and against changing UK law on directors' duties, in the context of a constantly evolving backdrop.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

In May 2023, we hosted our inaugural Mock investigation event. Following a workplace investigation into allegations of bullying by a senior manager, the event considered how to scope, prepare and carry out an investigation, including issues such as legal privilege, suspension, confidentiality of witnesses, and data privacy. 

Read and listen to "What’s Happening in Pensions", our regular news briefing covering topical pensions law developments.

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act (REUL Act) has recently received Royal Assent. We look at the potential impact on data protection, e-commerce, tech and IP, together with the bigger picture on divergence from the EU in these areas.

In the recent case of Bhaur and others v Equity First Trustees (Nevis) Ltd and others [2023]  EWCA Civ 534, the Court of Appeal (CoA) had to consider whether to allow taxpayers to undo, on the grounds of mistake, a voluntary disposition of their assets entered into as part of a tax avoidance scheme.

The controversial legislation to enable the Government to revoke or reform retained EU law (the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act or REUL Act) has now Received Royal Assent. Although some of the most heavily criticised aspects of the legislation have been removed, it will still create a climate of uncertainty around retained EU law.