Litigation & Dispute Resolution

As 2024 draws to a close, we look back at some of the highlights across BCLP's Litigation & Investigations team. Our lawyers have successfully represented our clients across a myriad of high-stakes disputes globally, as well as being at the forefront of notable Pro Bono efforts and thought leadership initiatives.

Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) use in business has proliferated in recent years; risks arising from this therefore must be managed. Whilst the use of AI can drive significant efficiency gains for most businesses, the characteristics of machine learning mean that there is the potential for data protection and discrimination claims to arise (amongst others). We explore some of the potential litigation risks in the UK arising and how these risks can be managed.

The Court of Appeal has clarified the requirements to be satisfied before obtaining a freezing injunction, affirming an attainable merits threshold is to be preferred over a more stringent alternative. Any perceived tilt in favour of prospective applicants, however, is tempered by a heightened emphasis on the requirement for any potential order to be “just and convenient”. In this insight, Rachel Ziegler and Sanjay Lohano examine the Court of Appeal decision in Dos Santos v Unitel S.A., providing practical insights for prospective applicants looking to utilise one of the law’s so-called “nuclear weapons”.

Snyder v. United States, 144 S. Ct. 1947 (2024), which held that a federal bribery statute (18 U.S.C. § 666) does not criminalize “gratuities”—payments made corruptly to public officials after-the-fact as rewards for their actions—was lauded as a great win for the white-collar bar. But what about the Supreme Court’s approach to statutory interpretation in Snyder? Not so great, at least in our view. Snyder’s majority opinion provides a playbook for the Supreme Court, in this and future iterations, to engage in a policy-first, text-last approach to statutory interpretation that should make our profession wary, white-collar bar included.

In Gibbins v Tierney [2024] EWHC 2004 (Ch), the High Court reaffirmed the principles that apply when deciding whether there has been unfair prejudice, within the meaning of section 994 of the Companies Act 2006, in a quasi-partnership. This case is a good example of how unfair prejudice rules are applied by the Courts to quasi partnerships in circumstances where one party has allegedly sought to shut out another from management decisions.