INDIA UPDATE

NOVEMBER 2019

Introduction - merger news

by Rustam Dubash, head of India group

It has been some time since I last wrote to you, and I have plenty of exciting news to share with you.

Firstly, for many years you have known us as Penningtons Manches, a full service law firm in the heart of London with strong regional offices. Well, I am delighted to say that we have evolved through merger into Penningtons Manches Cooper!

In July 2019 our partnership grew through the addition of the partners and staff of one of London’s renowned shipping practices, Thomas Cooper LLP and its network of international offices. As a firm, we had been seeking new growth opportunities in the wake of the challenges being thrown up by Brexit, especially in litigation and arbitration. We were impressed with Thomas Cooper’s marine work, which is a new sector for us, but also with its international trade and arbitration capability.

Penningtons Manches has established a strong reputation in a variety of sectors, with our lawyers recognised for their expertise in corporate M&A, commercial contracts, international litigation and arbitration, private wealth, technology and real estate. We have strong expertise in family disputes, life sciences, education, retail, sports and entertainment and in these areas, we're acknowledged for our unparalleled market insight.

It is an exciting time for us. Building on our reputation for excellence, with particular strength in commercial litigation, banking and finance litigation and class (group) actions, our offering has been boosted by the leading shipping and trade arbitration expertise brought by the partners and staff of Thomas Cooper. I am delighted that we have merged and look forward to getting to know our new colleagues and working with them to support our clients.

Today our headcount now amounts to over 850 people working across 13 offices in seven jurisdictions. This includes 141 partners and over 700 staff.

We have had an enormously busy year, speaking at and attending conferences in the UK, India, UAE and USA. We have undertaken transactions with Indian companies, supported Indian companies on their commercial operations in the UK and helped many people settle and thrive through our expertise in immigration and private wealth. Our head of immigration, Pat Saini, has been recognised as being a leading figure in the 100 most influential women in UK India relations and I am delighted to report that we won the award for UK India legal experts 2019 at the 9^th Indian Corporate Counsel Association Summit in New Delhi in August. It has been quite a year!

In this newsletter, the India group has put together some articles on topical issues which I hope you will find of interest. These articles have been written by my Penningtons Manches Cooper colleagues.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or other members of the India group if you would like to have an informal chat.

Contact Rustam Dubash

UK immigration update

by Pat Saini

The UK is heading for a December election, which may or may not result in a new government. In the meantime the EU has granted an extension to Article 50, allowing the UK more time to ratify the withdrawal agreement.

The current government has stated that once the UK leaves the EU, it proposes to introduce a new single immigration system from 1 January 2021.

In this article Pat Saini, head of immigration, looks at the current UK immigration routes available to Indian nationals, what immigration announcements have already been made and exactly what changes are being considered.

Read the full article

Latest trends in cyber risks insurance

by Celso de Azevedo

The growth of specialist cyber insurance as an independent line of business in the insurance industry has been the result of wide-ranging data protection and notification laws enacted in US states in the past decade or so, and more recently in the EU, following the implementation in member states, including the UK, of the Networking and Infrastructure Security (NIS) Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Read the full article

The perils of messaging apps

by Phillip D'Costa and Jenni Gregor

Over the past decade, instant messaging app services for businesses or individuals to communicate with single or multiple users has seen some of the fastest growth in the tech sector. For instance, when Whatsapp was launched in 2009, it was providing a free message service alternative to Blackberry Messenger. Its growth since then up to over 1.7 billion monthly users, has been nothing short of phenomenal, eclipsing the speed of user numbers for apps such as Twitter, Skype or Facebook itself. In India, by far its largest market, Whatsapp now has over 400 million users and is only recently being challenged by stablemate Messenger and newcomer Tiktok. No doubt it was these stellar user growth rates that convinced Mark Zuckerberg to add Whatsapp to the Facebook stable in 2014 for US$19 billion.

Read the full article

Brexit implications for cross-border contracts and data flows with UK parties

by Joanne Vengadesan and Katie Gordon

With the latest Brexit deadline now confirmed as 31 January 2020 and a no-deal Brexit remaining a possibility, both overseas and UK businesses (which may include UK subsidiaries of multinationals) should review their key cross-border contracts. Such contracts may, for example, be affected if the consequences of Brexit result in a significant increase in costs due to new tariffs, trade barriers or currency fluctuations. Contracts that depend on a regime that may no longer apply after Brexit, such as free movement of people, may also need to be amended or renegotiated.

Read the full article