Commercial Awareness

Introducing Carve-outs: A New Corporate Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) Strategy in Difficult Times

During certain economic periods, particularly when conditions tighten and borrowing costs remain very high, it seems strange that M&A can persist. This is the function of corporate carve-outs. Instead of businesses pursuing large-scale acquisitions, a growing number of businesses have chosen to divest non-core assets through this carve-out process. As this trend emerged and reshaped the M&A landscape, it has created some challenges and business opportunities for global law f

Howard Hii Dai Jie

1 day ago3 min read

115 Charges and Counting: Manchester City and the Boundaries of Sporting Justice

In February 2023, the footballing world was shocked when the Premier League hit Manchester City with 115 charges for allegedly breaking financial regulations between 2009 and 2018. The Premier League claimed that the club was not transparent enough regarding its sponsorship deals and payments to key staff members. Manchester City were swift to deny such allegations. Yet, the case has turned into one of the biggest tests of how far football’s rule-makers can really go when the

Abdulaziz Almeshari

Oct 272 min read

The Evri and DHL eCommerce UK Merger: Lessons in Commercial Law, Competition Policy, and Deal Strategy

A new delivery giant has landed, but what does it mean legally and logistically? To start off, both DHL and Evri are well-known as parcel delivery services with an expansive presence in the UK. Their key distinctions lie in operations, whereby DHL delivers secure and high-value items through their system of couriers and vehicles. In contrast, Evri handles an abundance of lower-value parcels delivered by independent couriers in their own vehicles. Announced in May 2025, the me

Sham Alkhder

Oct 272 min read

The Abolition of the ‘Shareholder Rule’ and Why it Matters

In July of this year, the Privy Council’s decision in Jardines Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd & Ors abolished the ‘Shareholder Rule’. To understand the case and the implications of this decision, it is important to first explore what English Legal Professional Privilege (LPP) is. LPP is a legal principle that protects privileged information and communications from disclosure in legal proceedings. In essence, it’s the rule that ensures clients that, whe

Sham Alkhder

Oct 272 min read

U.S. Law Firms’ Retreat from China

The once rapid U.S. expansion into China’s legal sphere has now fallen victim to retrenchment. After China acceded to the World Trade Organisation in the early 2000s, a surge in global trade and globalisation fuelled U.S. law firms’ expansion into the Chinese market as the need for international legal services on cross-border transactions and IPOs skyrocketed. This once-vibrant legal landscape has since declined due to geopolitical tensions, slowed economic growth, and manda

Sham Alkhder

Oct 272 min read

Rising Interest Rates that Reshapes Private Equity Deals

After several years of safe sailing and cheap borrowing, the global market has recently adjusted for private equity to a new and challenging landscape which includes high interest rates and higher standards of credit control and regulations. This shift in the trend has forced private equity firms to restructure their investment strategies, rethink how they add value and how they can exit deals when necessary . Due to these trends, the market has become quieter than before. T

Howard Hii Dai Jie

Oct 272 min read

Who owns ‘ICELAND’?

Imagine a sovereign nation initiating legal proceedings against a supermarket chain. This may sound like a crazy hypothetical, but believe it or not this actually happened. In 2016 the Republic of Iceland, a Nordic island state with a population of approximately 370,000 started legal proceedings against Iceland Foods Ltd., the prominent UK-based frozen food retailer operating over 1,000 stores across Europe. At the heart of this conflict lies a fundamental question: can a pr

Elliot Burcher

Oct 182 min read

The Question of the Digital Pound

The digital pound, ‘Britcoin’, is a central bank digital currency (CBDC) proposed by the Bank of England and HM Treasury. In 2023, the Bank of England released the Digital Pound Consultation Paper. In this paper, the Bank outlined the timeline and the future need for the digital pound while weighing, to a certain extent, the benefits and detriments of introducing it. In this article, we examine the justifications for introducing the digital pound, as well as the arguments a

Sham Alkhder

Oct 143 min read

FTC v Amazon: The Modern Monopoly Question

In September 2023, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with 17 state attorneys general, filed a lawsuit against Amazon U.S. under antitrust law. The case alleges that Amazon has been employing unfair practices to maintain monopoly power in online retail and marketplace services. This is a significant case as it marks one of the major cases in U.S. antitrust law in relation to Big Tech’s digital dominance since the lawsuit against Microsoft in the 1990s. The FTC’s C

Sham Alkhder

Oct 142 min read

Vicarious Liability: When Employers Are Held Responsible

In medicine and law alike, accountability matters. But what happens when harm is caused not by a company itself, but by someone working for it? The legal concept of vicarious liability answers that question. It allows an employer to be held legally responsible for the actions or negligence of an employee if those actions occurred in the course of their employment. In healthcare, this principle often arises when patients suffer harm at the hands of hospital staff. If a nurse o

Annabel Hampsheir

Oct 111 min read