Last November the expert group appointed by the Scottish Executive to consider a statutory offence of corporate culpable homicide issued its report. As expected, the group proposed a new statutory offence of corporate killing. It recommended that this should apply to incorporated companies and, as far as possible, to unincorporated and Crown bodies. The report recommended that two individual offences (applying to named persons) be introduced ...
This publication is part of a DFDL series focusing on Corporate Insolvency Regime in consideration of the COVID-19 outbreak in Asia. DFDL published the previous editions in a series of tailor-made FAQs on restructuring and insolvency matters that businesses and stakeholders need to keep track of in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao PDR, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam ...
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill was introduced to Parliament on 20 July 2006. Westminster and the Scottish Executive have agreed corporate liability for death is a health and safety matter reserved to Westminster and therefore a UK wide Act is required. The Bill makes provision for a new offence to be called corporate manslaughter in England and Wales and corporate homicide in Scotland ...
25th Annual Conference On Securities Regulation and Business Law Problems, Dallas, Texas 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Scope of Outline. In the aftermath of the recent failure of Enron and other major companies and the resulting loss of public confidence in the capital markets, the U.S. Congress conducted lengthy investigative hearings to determine the root causes of these problems ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies to change the way that they do business. The fact that the National Capital Region is currently under a Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ),[1] and prior to that, was under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) for two months since 16 March 2020, makes it difficult for Philippine domestic corporations to navigate the Philippine business landscape and conduct business as usual ...
Enron, WorldCom, Tyco International and Parmalat: names associated with tales of corruption, mismanagement and financial irregularity. But these names are now also synonymous with something else: a raft of reforms to company regulation worldwide. Two such reforms being felt in the UK are the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004, and the FTSE Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) Corporate Governance Index Series ...
SEC and PCAOB To Take Action on Section 404 Internal Controls Reporting Matters The SEC recently announced a series of actions it and the PCAOB intend to take to improve the implementation of the internal control reporting requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. These actions include: • Providing Guidance for Companies ...
As of 16 March, the day when the state of emergency was declared in Romania, the Government has adopted an impressive number of pieces of legislation aimed at preventing and limiting the spread of the new coronavirus, on one hand, and at reducing the negative impact on economy of the implemented solutions, on the other hand. To be specific, we are talking about 75 acts (primary and secondary legislation) adopted in the course of approximately 1 month ...
Among its other consequences, the ongoing global outbreak of Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in an economic crisis. In this legal update we present insolvency law issues which may arise during the crisis and we also propose practical solutions for dealing with challenges that companies may face. 1 ...
Buyers and sellers often have different views on how much a target is worth and how its value should best be determined. Normally, the valuation of a company is based on both its past performance and its projected future performance. While the seller may be confident of the company's future growth, the buyer may be reluctant to assume the risk of the company failing to perform as expected by paying the seller the whole purchase price upfront ...
Things To Think About This Proxy Season Prior to Drafting Update director and officer questionnaires, including “independence” criteria for directors Most public companies follow the “best practice” of having all directors and executive officers complete a standard form of questionnaire each year to verify the accuracy of information about the person that is reported in the 10-K Report and proxy statement ...
Summary • Higher standards are imposed on directors • The key mission of a corporate director: to contribute his knowledge and skills with a view to the best interests of the corporation • Corporate governance is the best shield against directors’ liability (Supreme Court judgment in the Wise case) • Specific precautions may be taken by corporate directors to ensure that they both fulfil their key mission and simultaneously protect themselves against the risk of liability Backgro
The role, and especially the liability, of corporate directors have evolved considerably over the last few decades. Obviously, the financial scandals of the 1990s are largely responsible for this change that began in the United Stated with the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 200, prompting Canadian authorities to follow suit with the adoption of more stringent securities regulations ...
Introduction Recent years have seen the UAE making regular updates to its laws in order to guarantee a legal regime that is forward-looking, and consistent with international standards and principles. The leaders of the UAE have been particularly cognizant of the need to have a robust criminal law regime to encourage legitimacy in business, and dissuade any unscrupulous activities that could reflect negatively on the UAE as a determined and fast-developing economy ...
Holding companies to account: criticism of the current criminal framework Over time and bit by bit the UK’s approach to corporate criminal liability is being narrowed. The issue has long been debated with many commentators agreeing that the current criminal legal framework is far from satisfactory at holding corporate organisations to account for instances of criminality when those crimes are committed on behalf of, or in the name of, the company ...
Published in Corporate Counsel Business Journal March 1, 2023 CCBJ: To start out, please share your background with our readers, including your involvement with the WSG–Legal 500 Survey of In-House Legal Technology. Herman Raspé: I am a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler in the capital markets group with a focus principally on equity, but also cross-border debt transactions ...
Central America is at an inflection point regarding acceptable compliance and conformity. Among all the anxiety and instability that change will bring, it is welcoming to see that separate disciplines are pushing towards similar objectives in Corporate Governance. A quick discussion on Director´s Responsibility provides a glimpse on how new Governance issues will reshape slanted interpretations of the law ...
Houston American Corporate Counsel Association Chapter
"As demonstrated within this context, actual enforcement can serve as a powerful motivator of intensified corporate compliance efforts. Companies and individuals often want to do the right thing, but an effective compliance programme entails more than just a pristine ethical mindset. Among other elements discussed in this book, a compliance programme requires the commitment of management at all levels and sufficient resourcing to do the job well ...
At present, M&A transactions are frequently at least postponed because of uncertainties about the development of the target, the potentially unpredictable situation of the prospective buyer and its financing, and partly also because of practical problems to finalize the transaction. CARRYING OUT THE M&A PROCESS The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are most evident in actually carrying out an M&A transaction ...
As the country and the world grapple with the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and the necessary steps governments, businesses, and citizens are taking to mitigate the crisis and the spread of COVID-19, businesses are dealing with an unprecedented slowdown and/or shutdown of operations across many economic sectors ...
This new framework will remain in force until 31December 2020 and it allows Member States to provide: a) Aid in the form of direct grants, selective tax advantages and repayable advance payments, up to EUR 800,000 per company, to companies in most economic sectors to meet their urgent liquidity needs; b) State guarantees for loans taken out by companies from banks and the framework defines, among other possibilities, minimum guarantee premiums for this purpose; TYPE OF BENEFICIARY MARG
Privileged information and financial reporting The rapid spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) throughout the world and the impact of administrative measures to contain it represent a growing challenge for the management of companies. On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the existence of a pandemic. The main focus now is to guarantee the safety of workers and employees ...
The so called “break-even point” is a relevant concept in business economy. Simply speaking, a company is in break-even point when the number of product units sold equals its Total Fixed Cost, divided by the respective Contribution Margin per Unit (i.e ...
In the past months, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has been a major topic of interest worldwide and continues to be a source of concern for all businesses across industries. Among the significant disruptions brought to the global economy, COVID-19 has a direct impact on the workplace. Various companies have already struggled to find out solutions to mitigate risks related to COVID-19 and to ensure business continuity ...
