Insights

Lilah Howson Smith, Senior Associate; Johnny Luk, Senior Associate; and Alex Dawson, UK Politics and Policy Practice Lead, discuss the upcoming UK elections on May 6th and why they matter.

The meteoric rise of digital commerce and virtual services has raised the issue of how to tax companies that do not generate value based on their physical footprint, but nonetheless place a burden on the jurisdictions in which they operate. The digital tax issue has been percolating for several years but as major tech companies like Facebook and Netflix have raised the…

EU finance ministers last month approved a targeted simplification of rules governing EU capital markets, which they presented as a key component of the post-pandemic recovery effort. This recognition of the economic contribution of financial services broke the chain of a decade of regulatory crackdowns and the creation of powerful new pan-European supervisors. It is…

On an event for the Global Counsel network, Elizabeth Beall, Climate and Sustainability Practice Lead and Geoffrey Norris, Senior Adviser, are joined by Lord Deben, Chair of the UK Committee on Climate Change and Former Secretary of State for the Environment.

On call for the Global Counsel network, Erin Caddell, President of GC USA, Chris Rinkus, Practice Lead for US Political Due Diligence, and Miranda Lutz, Senior Associate, unpack the first 100 days of Joe Biden's presidency.

The disappointing first-day performance of Deliveroo, the food delivery service hailed by UK chancellor Rishi Sunak as ‘a true British tech success story’, will be treated for years to come as a salutary lesson – even if judging an IPO on its first day might be premature.

The dominance of the Big Four is over. At least, that’s the headline the government wants to talk about. After all, who could argue with breaking up oligopolies and increasing competition? But the most significant proposals in the government’s white paper on ‘Restoring trust in audit and corporate governance’ in fact relate to the second part: corporate governance. These…

The headline is so common in the supercharged market for emerging technology firms that it seems almost commonplace, though still amazing in the grand arc of history: A five-year old Silicon Valley social media start-up, having doubled its active monthly user base to more than 100m global users in just a year, is in exclusive talks to be acquired by a well-established,…

The meeting between US and Chinese officials in Alaska on March 19th left little doubt that the new Biden administration does not mean a quick rapprochement between Beijing and Washington. If anything, Chinese officials upped the ante by making it clear that they see little downside to taking a tough line and signalling that China will emerge confident from covid-19. …

Elizabeth Beall, Climate and Sustainability Practice Lead and Giorgio Corbetta, Energy Senior Associate, look at stranded assets and the EU's industrial strategy. They unpack why it's important, what you need to know, and what's the way forward for this important issue.

Late last week, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan (ARP), a massive $1.9 trn stimulus that will provide billions in funding to public school systems across the United States. The scale is unprecedented, with more than $122 bn allocated for elementary and secondary schools (commonly referred to as K-12 schools in the US). Combined with the two other major…

The covid-19 vaccine rollout in Central and Eastern Europe, including the Western Balkans, has not been immune to politicisation. Vaccination is seen as a powerful tool to accelerate post-covid economic recovery alongside stimulus packages, but with Russia and China getting involved, some compare it to the debate on national security concerns about critical infrastructure…

The events at the US Capitol in January of this year may well signal a sea change in the regulatory scrutiny of social media platforms worldwide. While several prominent platforms had already moved to restrict political content, many criticised the role of social media platforms in stoking dissention. This, in turn, has renewed regulatory concern in the EU about…

Denzil Davidson, Adviser and Thomas Gratowski, Practice Lead, Global Macro discuss Germany's states elections, ahead of the federal elections in September, what the state elections tell us about the future of German politics and what it means for the EU.

As the EU’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050 is enshrined in law, a gap in the bloc’s policy agenda remains a realistic role for fossil-fuel related industries. Almost two decades on from the first use of the term “stranded investments” – investments, such as fossil fuel power generation or transmission, that have already been made but which, prior to the end of…

A little under two years ago, I wrote about whether the introduction of a ‘green taxonomy’ in the EU would set the stage for a transformation of not just the financial system but how we define sustainability. Over these last two years, the EU has drafted an ever-growing list of regulations aimed at providing guidance for both investors and corporates on i) what can be…

On March 8th, global vaccine leader Israel had administered 102 vaccine doses per 100 people. The UK had administered 35 per 100, the US 28. Up until that point, Africa had managed to give out 0.38 doses per 100 people. This is because vaccination campaigns only started in the first week of March in many African countries, after receiving their first doses of vaccines…

The UK Chancellor used last week’s budget to signal broad support for a few landmark net zero projects. However, the budget was notably thin on measures designed to mobilise both business and households to deliver this aim. This reflects in part the government’s competing priorities during the pandemic. But does it also suggest that net zero is not as deeply integrated…