Year: 2019
The big data regulation debate
Back in 2006, Sheffield mathematician Clive Humby declared “data is the new oil” after reaping the benefits of helping to set up a supermarket loyalty card scheme. This was the same year that Facebook went mainstream, accelerating the pace of data harvesting and spawning an entire industry devoted to the collection, analysis and monetisation of […]
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Facebook’s Libra under the regulatory spotlight
“This project contains risks of abuse of dominant position, risks to sovereignty and risks for consumers and for companies” (Bruno Le Maire, French Finance Minister) In June Facebook announced to much public fanfare that it intends to roll out a new digital currency called Libra for use in 2020, allowing its users across the globe […]
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Juriosity: building a legal marketplace
Juriosity.com was launched in partnership with the Bar Council of England and Wales in 2018. In its current form, the platform provides a directory of practising barristers and other legal professionals and a self-publishing platform enabling barristers (and other approved contributors) to publish short articles on legal developments, cases they have been involved in (or […]
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The ultimate law firm website checklist
It’s all about the first impression. For most potential clients, your website is your shopfront. Does it belong on Oxford street or skid row? This guide will help you find out. Step 1 – Google your firm The first step is to search for your firm in Google (I’m sure you don’t need a step-by-step […]
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New digital services tax implemented in France
Governments around the world have grappled with the challenge of sufficiently taxing international companies – particularly peripatetic tech giants – which aggressively pursue policies of (perfectly legal) tax avoidance. One of the main reasons that so many Silicon Valley icons decide to base their European operations in Dublin (including Google and Apple) is due to […]
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Max Schrems: the return
In the wake of growing data protection concerns around the turn of the century, a framework dubbed “Safe Harbor” was agreed between the EU and the US in 2000, which essentially permitted transatlantic free-flow of personal data. Towards the end of 2015, as a result of one of several legal challenges brought by prolific Austrian […]
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First GDPR level fines in the UK
One of the key changes brought about by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force on 25 May 2018, was a substantial increase in the maximum fines available for data protection breaches, to the higher of €20 million or 4% of global annual turnover. Any breaches which occurred prior to this date […]
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Three risks posed to conveyancers and how to avoid them
Risk management is an essential part of running any law firm. The costs – monetary and otherwise – can be substantial if practices don’t identify risks, and do everything they can to mitigate them. Different types of challenges can present themselves depending on the exact nature of your firm, and the work you do. Here, […]
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The new EU copyright directive: backing creatives
The new EU copyright law that copyright lawyers, artists, management and media companies have been waiting for was passed on 17 April 2019 as Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC. The directive is not law as is (although some of its provisions […]
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An Uber model for legal services delivery?
Some commentators have been asking whether law firms and other legal service organisations should adopt an Uber-like model for legal service delivery. From a narrow technological point of view I think is safe to assume that this could well happen. Looking at some of the less benign aspects of the model in practice, it seems […]
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Information overload: time to take a break?
Information overload is defined by Wikipedia as “the difficulty in understanding an issue and effectively making decisions when one has too much information about that issue” – although, ironically, it offers alternative definitions based on multiple sources! History The concept of excessive information is nothing new. Back in the 16th Century, renaissance scholar Erasmus blamed […]
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Key IT skills for modern lawyers
There is often an assumption made that young lawyers (Millennials) entering the profession have the technology skills that my generation (Generation X) and the one that went before me (Baby Boomers) lack. A life brought up with a smartphone in hand equips them to tackle legal technology in a law office standing on their head. […]
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