Articles

MUMBAI: Till January 2012, few had heard of Fereshte Sethna, 45, and Anuradha Dutt, 55, the lynchpins of the equally low-profile boutique litigation firm Dutt Menon Dunmorrsett (DMD). A Supreme Court ruling in favour of Vodafone in a $2-billion tax case changed all that.

Another Legal Diva is ABL Board Member, Mona Bhide, a third-generation lawyer who has joined the family firm, Dave Girish & Co. 

Meet some of today's top women lawyers who are following in the hallowed footsteps of India's best-known legal diva, the 56-year-old Zia Mody.

The UK boasts one of the world’s strongest creative sectors with a wide range of creative industries such as literature, music and film, theatre, ballet, art and sculpture. Anyone who has created an original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, sound recording, film, broadcast, or typographical arrangement may be entitled to protection under UK copyright law.

Jonathan Booton, intellectual property law solicitor at Warners Solicitors in Kent, provides an overview of how different works are protected by UK copyright law, and why you should consider taking specialist legal advice to ensure your work is adequately protected.

India is finally moving ahead towards having a comprehensive Data Protection Law which is the need of the hour to truly ensure a person’s privacy in today’s digital age.

On January 04, 2019, the Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, informed the Rajya Sabha that the data protection law has been finalized and the Bill will be tabled in Parliament soon.

Mexico - On February 22, 2019, the "Agreement that modifies the Guidelines establishing Hydrocarbon and petroleum products classification and codification subject to import and export permit issued by the Ministry of Energy" (the Agreement) was published in the Federal Official Gazette, which is in force as of February 23rd.

The Agreement standardizes the requirements that must be met in the application for short-term (one-year) import and export permits of hydrocarbons and petroleum products, with those established for the Sectorial Importers Registry of Hydrocarbons.
 

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) introduced the Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate
Persons (Amendment) Regulations, 2019 which came into effect from 24.01.2019. The amendments have been introduced in the light of recent failure/non-seriousness of the successful Resolution Applicant(s) to meet the commitments proposed by them in the Resolution Plan approved by the Committee of Creditor of Corporate Debtor as well as the Hon’ble Adjudicating Authority (National Company Law Tribunal) under Section 31 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code).

Due to failure of the commitments the time, energy and efforts put by all those who were involved in Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process of a Corporate Debtor go into vein. Further, it leads to a peculiar situation as liquidation also cannot be commenced as this type of situation is not even contemplated under Section 33(3) of the Code.

This article summarizes the changes proposed vide these amendments.

From an investment climate perspective, foreign investors have perceived Russia as a very promising market in terms of investment opportunities but, as well as in other countries across the world, corruption and lack of compliance was a major problem for doing business in Russia. Some of their biggest concerns were how the rule of law is enforced in the country and other issues related to the lack of transparency as well as some administrative issues.

Nowadays,  Russian compliance and anti-corruption legislation has come a long way and counts on a very comprehensive legislative framework on anti-corruption and compliance. 

The ABL Compliance Unit has just published an article dedicated to this topic.

The ABL Young Lawyer’s Group has published its 9th Report on ‘Consumer Protection Regulations”. Consumer Protection is important because consumers often experience a significant imbalance of bargaining power as compared to producers and sellers of products and services. The Report provides an overview of the Consumer Protection Regulations in each country mentioned in this Report.

In a commercial contract, a tender is procured upon estimation of prices of material and labor to be incurred in future. However, these prices are susceptible to change due to reasons beyond the control of either party. Such unforeseen change in prices, which may shake the very foundation of the bargain, which parties entered into, may lead to frustration of contract, which in turn leads to termination of contract. To avoid such a situation, an escalation clause is added into the contract, which takes into account any future changes in prices of labor and material.

But what if the contract does not provide for an escalation clause and the contract is extended beyond the completion period - because of no fault of contractor - resulting in losses for the contractor?

The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 is the single most important legislation coming out of the United States aimed at preventing bribery. This Act makes it unlawful to offer payments to foreign government officials either to assist in obtaining or retaining business. It is also the first law to introduce corporate liability; or in other words responsibility for third parties and extra-territoriality for corruption offenses. 

Read the full article.

The ABL Young Lawyer’s Group has published its 8th Report on ‘Process of Setting Up a Company”. The Report provides a brief overview of the most important legal considerations for individuals or organisations wishing to establish business operations in each of the countries mentioned.

Read the full article.