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Discover thought leadership and legal insights by our legal experts from across CMS. In our Expert Guides, written by CMS lawyers from across the jurisdictions where we operate, we provide you with in-depth legal research and insights that can be read both online and offline. You can also find Law-Now articles with focused legal analysis, commentary and insights to help you anticipate future challenges and much more.



Media type
Expertise
21/03/2024
CMS European M&A Study 2024
The CMS Corporate/M&A Group is pleased to launch the 16th edition of the European M&A Study
01/03/2024
Digital Assets
Does your business have or is it ready for digitalisation and digital assets? Digital assets are transforming the world of business. Not just technologies in the news, like AI and crypto currencies, but a whole world of technological advances, from digital twins and extended reality to smart contracts and token­isa­tion. For tech businesses and those already using such technology to develop and market new products, much of this is core activity and relatively well understood – although legal and regulatory uncertainties remain, and potential pitfalls still exist for the unwary. But other business leaders, often less familiar with the territory, have to manage an increasingly complex assortment of issues that never troubled their predecessors, ranging from protecting their brand in the metaverse to deciding whether they should tokenise their shares or accept payments in crypto currencies. This section of Bandwidth looks at issues around the development and regulation of a wide variety of digital assets, and discusses how businesses can embrace them to innovate and evolve.
20/02/2024
MEES - why are local authorities failing to enforce?
The UK government has a continued drive and commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Yet as highlighted in the first of this series of publications, “MEES – are the regulations working?” the risk of MEES enforcement is low. Against a hotly discussed political backdrop, why is it that local authorities are continually failing to enforce the MEES regulations? Left alone, the existing approach serves to undermine the UK’s net zero strategy.
14/11/2023
How sector preferences shape international arbitration
Hypothesis: The Energy and Construction sectors dominate in international arbitration On the international arbitration stage, the energy and construction sectors have long held the spotlight. With their complex, high-value contracts and cross-border transactions, which often involve a political element, disputes in these sectors are well suited to adjudication by a neutral, international arbitral tribunal.  In this second report in a series of data sheets exploring arbitration topics as part of our ‘data driven disputes’ campaign we take another deep dive into the data to investigate whether our hypothesis was the whole “sector story”. Adopting a global perspective, we analysed institutional data to identify which sectors have experienced a surge in arbitrations, which have fallen by the wayside, and we queried whether specific regions have become arbitration hotspots for particular sectors. We also spoke to the institutions about which sectors they anticipate to be areas of growth in the coming years.    Research and methodology In order to conduct this analysis, CMS carried out desk research and qualitative interviews: Results The data clearly showed that, whilst energy and construction remain dominant in the arbitration world, that dominance is not universal. Indeed, other specific sectors are increasingly prominent for certain arbitral providers. For example, whereas construction takes the top spot in Dubai, the ICDR in the U.S. has seen an increase in technology arbitrations. Meanwhile HKIAC is enjoying a FinTech boom and Japan is seeing a gaming surge.  Various factors are likely to be behind this. The regions in which the institutions are based are likely to be relevant; construction has seen significant growth in the Middle East due to tourism and foreign investment, while in contrast the gaming industry is thriving in Japan, home to some of the biggest names in the sector.  Reputation and track record remain key. Banking and finance parties, for example, continue to look to the LCIA in light of its history of dealing with high-value and complex financial disputes. Customised rules also play a part; the ICDR’s tech­no­logy-spe­cif­ic clauses allow tech companies to tailor their arbitration process to suit the subject matter of their contract.  Looking to the future, there appears to be a cross-regional expectation that green energy cases will account for a significant number of disputes in due course. As we determined in our first report, there is clear scope for more specialist centres to emerge, with these centres coexisting with the more generalist institutions. We consider below how the existing institutions may try to adapt and evolve as a result.  Technology and AI Several of the institutions that we spoke to highlighted Technology as a sector that had experienced a recent uptick in cases and one that they expected to experience continued growth. The Vienna International Arbitration Centre (VIAC), for example, has seen ‘Technology’ knock ‘Commercial Contracts’ from the top spot, with 29.7% of cases relating to the Technology sector in 2022. Similarly, Technology is now number one for the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) in the U.S. Interestingly, despite the extent to which the benefits, risks and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) is currently dominating the public discourse, only one institution (the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB) International) specifically highlighted AI to us as an area in which they anticipated seeing future disputes. KCAB International described the work they are doing internally to ensure they are up-to-speed on the developments for their consumers. We consider the approach of the institutions to AI in more detail in a future edition of this report.  
20/10/2023
International Disputes Digest
  Analysis and commentary on global dispute resolution trends Welcome to our International Disputes Digest, a bi-annual publication featuring analysis and commentary on the key trends currently shaping the global dispute resolution market. In these uncertain times, global businesses in almost every sector are facing challenges brought about by an unprecedented operational climate. Actions and decisions taken may be subject to even greater scrutiny than normal and, together with new legislative developments around the world, we bring you the latest news on important global issues, opportunities and challenge. See be­low all edi­tions of the In­ter­na­tion­al Disputes Digest.
19/10/2023
Arbitration is surviving and thriving - don't believe everything you hear
Hypothesis: The number of arbitrations is decreasing In recent years the arbitration press and conference circuit has spent much time reflecting on whether there has been a reduction in the number of arbitrations being filed. If true, such a trend would have major implications for commercial parties who would usually choose to include arbitration agreements in their contracts – as well as dispute resolution lawyers across the board – and would raise the question as to what forum parties are choosing instead. They may choose different institutions or seats of arbitration or may even move away from arbitration as their preferred forum for dispute resolution. The importance of this possibility led to CMS conducting its own investigation to test if this hypothesis is true. Are there trends? Has there been a decline in the numbers of arbitrations being filed? This is the first in a series of data sheets to explore this, and related topics, in detail. Research and methodology In order to conduct this analysis, CMS carried out desk research and qualitative in­ter­views:Al­though in recent years some institutions reported slight dips in the numbers of registered arbitrations, these have not been hugely significant and do not appear to indicate any long-term trends. The falls generally have been attributed to numbers settling back after spikes in 2020 and 2021 related to the COVID pandemic and other international geopolitical issues. Overall case numbers reached a peak of 8,200 cases in 2020 across our sample of institutions, falling back slightly to 7,800 in 2022, still comfortably above the 6,600 seen in 2017. 
13/09/2023
Turning the Corner? CMS European M&A Outlook 2024
We are pleased to share with you the 2024 edition of the European M&A Outlook, published by CMS in association with Mergermarket.
12/09/2023
CMS European Class Actions Report 2023
Data-driven insights into class action risk across Europe, a key concern for major corporates
05/09/2023
Disputes 101: Autumn webinar series and recordings 2023
medium Available On-Demand – Disputes 101: CMS Autumn Webinar Series for 2023 Now in its fourth year, our webinar series took place over 13 weeks, from 5 September – 28 November 2023, Tuesdays at...
23/08/2023
The use of generative AI in litigation: future implications and potential...
Reproduced from Practical Law with the permission of the publishers. For further information visit www. practicallaw. com. In this article, Rebecca Byczok and Reeve Boyd from CMS’ Finance Disputes...
10/07/2023
On attack or defence, failing to prepare for a hostile takeover is preparing...
The dynamics of hostile takeovers in a challenging business environment | 5 min read A CMS study of hostile takeovers launched between 2017 and 2022 shows that, while relatively rare, hostile takeovers are most commonly launched by an existing shareholder and more often than not result in the successful acquisition of the target company. A successful defence to a hostile bid often depends on the target board’s preparedness, tactics employed as well as its ability to leverage relationships with key shareholders. This article zooms-in on some of the dynamics identifiable on recent hostile takeovers. Key contacts   Gordon Anton, Corporate M&AKristy Duane, Corporate M&AJames Parkes, Cor­por­ate M&AJack Shep­herd, Cor­por­ate M&AAlasdair Steele, Cor­por­ate M&A
28/06/2023
Tomorrow
Taking the long view Even in challenging times, real estate investors continue to have a strong degree of confidence in the future of the sector.