We have in 2021 seen a remarkable (continued) recovery in the Norwegian financial market. This is also evident from the perspective of our banking and financing team. We have assisted our clients with a considerable number of new financings and refinancings, across most sectors. It has especially been hectic within the shipping, aviation and renewable energy sectors and we have seen a steep increase within acquisition financing ...
In the policy statement PS21/16 issued at the end of November 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) set out its new approach to decision makers when issuing statutory notices ...
On 2nd December we hosted a webinar focused on social mobility and the role that in house legal functions can take to improve social mobility in the legal market. The panel of speakers comprised of Amanda Callear, senior legal counsel at Volkswagen Group and Tarn Kaur, associate at Shoosmiths as part of the ‘Conversations with Clients’ web-series and was hosted by Sebastian Price, partner at Shoosmiths ...
A recent opinion from the Court of Appeals of Georgia illustrates that contracts entered into with an unlicensed contractor, which are often unenforceable by an unlicensed contractor under many states’ laws, likely will not defeat the Federal Arbitration Act’s (FAA) deference to arbitration as the forum for determining whether a contract is valid and enforceable. In Jhun v. Imagine Castle, LLC, the Jhuns hired defendant Imagine Castle to perform remodeling work at their home ...
In Appeal of Carothers Constr., Inc., the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (the “Board”) rejected the Government’s reliance on strict compliance with the material specifications for a 2 1/2″ thick roof deck product when the contractor proved the substitute 2″ thick roof deck was equivalent ...
A pair of recent rulings involving the economic loss doctrine from North Carolina serve as a timely reminder to carefully consider the extent of contractual remedies in negotiation of construction agreements – lest a later breach of contract remedy prove insufficient, and further recovery barred by the economic loss doctrine ...
Legislation about retainage has become common place as many states have adopted different limitations, requirements, and schemes. A recent case in Tennessee is a good reminder that you must pay attention to all of the relevant state’s requirements. Failure to do so can be costly. In Snake Steel, Inc. v. Holladay Construction Group, LLC, the Tennessee Supreme Court recently addressed Tennessee's retainage requirements ...
On December 7, 2021, in Georgia v. Biden, No. 1:21-cv-163, a federal judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia issued a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate that applies to all federal contractors and subcontractors in covered contracts in any state or territory of the United States ...
On December 19, Gabriel Boric was elected as future President of Chile, and will take office on March 11, 2022. The following is a list of the main tax proposals1 of the recently elected candidate: New income tax regime: a disintegrated income tax regime is proposed for large companies, separating the tax paid at the company level from the one payable by its shareholders when withdrawing profits ...
On December 6, 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a circular to seek public comments on a draft of the Measures for Determination of Illegal Gains in Administrative Penalty Cases by Administrations for Market Regulation (Draft for Comment) (the “Draft Measures”), which is open for public comment until January 5, 2022 ...
Late Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued an Order and Opinion lifting the stay that previously had been entered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit which had prevented the OSHA COVID-19 emergency technical standard (the “ETS”) that applied to employers with 100 or more employees from going into effect ...
The core question of the doctor list case was whether online sharing of user reviews of health professionals on the Norwegian website «Legelisten.no» was necessary to ensure the freedom of expression and the public’s need for information. Furthermore, the Supreme Court had to decide whether those interests outweighed the privacy interests of the persons being reviewed ...
On Dec. 17, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ended the injunction preventing enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). The ETS requires that large employers must implement a COVID-19 vaccine mandate or testing protocol ...
In November 2021, OSHA issued an Emergency Temporary Standard that applied to employers with 100 or more employees (the “ETS”). The ETS required those employers to either adopt a policy requiring their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or adopt a masking and weekly testing regime that included removing employees who tested positive for COVID-19 from the workplace ...
The case concerned the use of competitor’s brands in key word advertising on Google. Ikano Bank and two banks in the consumer loan market demanded that Bank Norwegian’s advertising on the Internet using the banks’ characteristics as paid keywords should be prohibited pursuant to the general clause of the Marketing Act. The principle character of the case was demonstrated by the support from Virke, The Federation of Norwegian Enterprise, in favor of the three claimants ...
We have been involved in several noteworthy trademark and unfair competition disputes throughout 2021. In particular, we prevailed before the Supreme Court in a highly cited unfair competition and trademark dispute between Bank Norwegian AS and the three competing banks Komplett Bank, Ikano Bank, and BRA-bank in the «Google Ads» matter ...
The court of appeal’s decision has been referred to by several law firms as an important clarification that such internal notes are indeed encompassed by privilege and not disclosable. We do of course agree that maintaining trust in the attorney-client privilege is important, but in this context, it was hardly a point that needed clarification ...
December 17, 2021 By: Melissa Richards Earlier this year, we reported that the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (CA DFPI) published new regulations requiring all existing commercial lenders and brokers licensed under the California Financing Law (CFL) to transition their licenses over to the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) electronic portal by December 31, 2021 ...
Following the publication of its guidance on environmental claims in September 2021, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) will start reviewing potentially misleading claims in January 2022. Enforcement action may follow if claims breach consumer law ...
With just seven days left until Christmas Day, there’s no denying we are well in the midst of the festive build up. But, for those holding out for a special ‘I Do’ surprise this year, Christmas might just come a bit earlier than expected. Predictions made previously by Bridebook [1] show that the weekend before Christmas is when most intending spouses do, in fact, pop the question ...
On Jan. 25, President Biden signed Executive Order 14005 (the “Executive Order on Ensuring the Future Is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers”), which modified the Buy American Act (BAA) to require the use of more American-made components on government projects ...
Financial Services Climate risk — progress of Joint Committee on Climate Change In a joint statement, Bank Negara Malaysia (“BNM”) and Securities Commission Malaysia announced on 10 December 2021 the following: the Joint Committee on Climate Change (“JC3”) will issue a Reference Guide on Climate Risk Management and Scenario Analysis, which sets out expectations for financial institutions to integrate climate-related risks considerations in finan
It may seem logical that personal injury damages awarded for someone’s on-going medical needs following a serious injury would be ring-fenced on a divorce. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case. The leading authority on this point is Wagstaff v Wagstaff from 1992 in which, when referencing an attempt to ring-fence damages on divorce, it was stated that “the capital is not sacrosanct nor any part of it secured against the application of the other spouse” ...
