A&O Shearman network insights

EU Listing Act: episode 2 - what's new in MAR

This podcast is the second episode dedicated to the "EU Listing Act". Alessandra Pala, counsel of the Global Financial Markets group, discusses the most significant changes made by the Listing Act to the Market Abuse Regulation. 

This podcast is recorded in Italian.

Key issues when negotiating and navigating restrictive covenants

In a climate where workforce mobility is at an all-time high, and employers are vying for top-tier talent, the careful formulation of restrictive covenants has become more crucial than ever. Employees who leave and join a competitor, taking with them valuable relationships and confidential knowledge, can significantly harm a business. However, these risks can be effectively managed and mitigated by implementing strong business protection. 

In our last podcast of 2024, London partner, Kate Pumfrey, shares her insights on how employers are using, applying and enforcing restrictive covenants in the UK and her best practice tips for choosing, drafting and maximising business protection. The discussion extends to the position on paying for restrictive covenants, the approach for mobile workers and employee shareholders, and recent litigation trends. 

Considering the impact of AI across different types of commercial contracts

In this podcast, Alex Shandro, a partner in our AI practice based in London, and Jane Lavin, a senior knowledge lawyer in our digital, data, IP and technology team based in London, discuss how AI is driving new types of commercial contracts and a wide range of new contract protections to address the expansive legal risks raised by AI.

As AI is now pervasive, it is impacting almost every type of commercial arrangement, even if not immediately apparent. An immediate priority for businesses in navigating AI risks is to audit their universe of commercial contracts and contract templates and build in appropriate AI-specific protections.

Listeners will learn about the wider AI contracting landscape as well as key IP and data related protections and liability allocation, and the nuanced outcomes that are often reached in negotiations. Listeners will also learn about the importance of a technology and use case-led approach to negotiating AI contract protections and the need to consider these holistically alongside non-contractual mitigants.

Market Horizons podcast: What’s in a name? CRT and SRT

In this episode of A&O Shearman’s Market Horizons podcast series, our structured finance team discusses one of the hottest topics in global finance: credit risk transfer and significant risk transfer trades.

Regulatory shifts in Australia’s private capital market: key considerations for merger control and foreign investment

Simone Lowes, Peter McDonald, Lisa Emmanuel, and Dan Harris unpack the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) heightened scrutiny on private equity transactions and the Foreign Investment Review Board's (FIRB) evolving stance on foreign investments.

In this episode, our regulatory experts give their observations on the latest developments with respect to Australia’s proposed mandatory and suspensory merger control regime and how it might impact private equity acquirers. This is a must-listen for senior professionals and dealmakers who need to stay ahead of the regulatory curve.

Market Horizons podcast: All aboard: changes coming to the EU and UK prospectus regimes

In this episode of our Market Horizons podcast series, partners Amanda Thomas (London), Cristiano Tommasi (Rome), and Paul Peporté (Luxembourg) and counsel Jennifer Cresswell (London) from our global financial markets practice return to the topic of prospectus regulation.

Together they discuss changes to the EU and UK prospectus regimes and the similarities and differences between them from a debt capital markets perspective.

Restructuring Across Borders Toolkit - France

We have recently relaunched A&O Shearman’s Restructuring Across Borders Toolkit. This resource is developed by our market-leading Restructuring group (where applicable, in conjunction with our partner law firms) offering a free and easy-to-use resource that provides information and guidance on key practical aspects of restructuring and insolvency proceedings in more than 50 jurisdictions around the world.

To celebrate this relaunch colleagues from across our European network have sat down with Christopher Poel to discuss what pre-insolvency rescue and compromise proceedings are available to debtors in those jurisdictions, whether there have been any novel or exciting uses and deployments of those processes, and if there’s anything interesting coming down the line.

The seventh podcast takes a look at the current state of the French restructuring regime with Tristan Jambu-Merlin and Antoine Santoni. Alongside the more amicable and voluntary processes such as conciliation and the mandat ad hoc, the team also consider some of the other collective procedures which can bind all creditors to a plan (including dissenters) such as safeguard and accelerated safeguard, as well as some practical examples of the use of these procedures.

Privilege and tax advice: impact of recent ECJ decisions

We were recently involved in advising a Luxembourg law firm in relation to an order to disclose information and documents based on an information request issued by another EU Member State, and whether providing such information would be a breach of the rules on privilege. The matter went all the way to the CJEU, with the CJEU finding that (i) the order was an interference with the right to respect communications between a lawyer and their client, which are protected under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights and (ii) the current Luxembourg rules which exclude tax advice from the scope of legal privilege constitute an unjustified interference with such rights.

Insurance podcast series – Episode 3: The Transition Finance Market Review and the insurance sector

Transition finance is one of the hottest topics in the climate arena, and the role that insurers have to play is multi-layered.

In our latest podcast, Kate McInerney (a partner in our insurance group) and Ying-Peng Chin (a senior knowledge lawyer in our environmental and climate law group) discuss transition finance, the U.K. Transition Finance Market Review (TFMR) and what it means for the insurance sector.

We are delighted to contribute to shaping global norms in transition finance markets through our role in supporting the TFMR’s secretariat. The TFMR was commissioned by the U.K. government to examine solutions to unlocking transition finance at scale, with the ambition of making the U.K. a global hub for transition finance. The findings of the TFMR were published on October 17, 2024. Read our summary covering key issues in the TFMR's report that corporates and capital providers need to know.

EU Listing Act: episode 1 - key changes affecting the debt capital markets

This podcast explores a key topic for the EU financial sector: the “Listing Act”, a comprehensive legislative package adopted on October 8, 2024 to make capital markets more attractive for EU businesses and to facilitate access to capital for SMEs.

In this episode, Cristiano Tommasi (partner of our Global Financial Markets group) focuses on some key changes affecting the debt capital markets, particularly certain amendments to the Prospectus Regulation. 

Other aspects of the EU Listing Act will be explored in our next episode.

This podcast is recorded in Italian.