What is a guarantee and what is its relevant to insolvency? A guarantee is an agreement between one person/entity (the guarantor) and another person/entity (the creditor), to meet the current or future debts owed by the principal debtor to the creditor. For a guarantee to be valid, it must be evidenced in writing and signed by the guarantor, or any agent empowered to do so. Guarantees are a key mechanism

Review and reform of the domestic public procurement regime, and associated areas of regulation (including health procurement and State aid) is on the government’s agenda post-Brexit and a number of consultations have been conducted in this space. In December 2020, the Cabinet Office published a Green Paper for consultation, setting out ‘long-planned’ proposals to transform the UK public procurement regime. The proposed reforms aim to minimise bureaucracy, prioritise value for money and provide smaller businesses with more opportunities to win government contracts. The Green Paper set out the government’s proposals in some detail, along with a series of questions for public consultation. For details, see News Analyses: • UK government maps post-Brexit shake up of public procurement • Continuity or change? Public procurement rules after Brexit • Brexit—the end of public procurement rules or business as usual? • Bird & Bird Procurement Green Paper Briefings—eProcurement proposals and • Government consults on plans to ‘transform’ public procurement, LNB News 15/12/2020 70 The proposals would involve consolidating

A set-off is the right of one party, Party A, who is owed money by another party, Party B, to ensure payment by setting off the amount owed through a reduction of Party A’s liability to Party B under a separate dealing. Thus, where a creditor and a debtor have had mutual dealings, the creditor is entitled to set-off against the debt which they are owed any sum which they owe to the debtor. The rules of administration set-off and liquidation set-off are contained in the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016, SI 2016/1024, rr 14.24 and 14.25 respectively. The rules of bankruptcy set-off are set out in section 323 of the Insolvency Act 1986. Under insolvency set-off, an account shall be taken of what is due from each party to the other in respect of their mutual dealings and the sums due from one party to another

Interest-based advertising, or behavioural advertising (now known as personalised advertising) enables advertisers to reach users based on their interests and demographics. For example, a user may visit golf sites often and thus be categorised in a 'golf enthusiasts' segment. They will then be shown adverts related to golf. This provides a better experience for users who are more likely to click on an advert that is relevant to them leading to a more efficient monetisation of an advertiser's website. See Practice Note: Online behavioural advertising for further information. Legal framework The display of behaviourally targeted adverts will fall within the general scope of the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing

Interest is an important concept in UK tax law. Specifically, an obligation to withhold UK income tax applies to payments of certain types of interest, for which, see Practice Note: UK withholding tax on yearly interest. Note that, since 6 April 2016, the tax deduction scheme for interest (TDSI) has not applied. Broadly, before 6 April 2016, the TDSI required a deposit-taker (ie a bank) to deduct UK income tax from interest paid or credited before 6 April 2016 in respect of a deposit to a UK resident individual, an individual's personal representatives or trustees. For interest paid or credited on or after 6 April 2016, in addition to the abolition of the TDSI (which was given effect by removing section 851 of the Income Tax Act 2007 (ITA 2007)), an express exemption ensures that there is no obligation to withhold UK income tax under ITA 2007, s 874 (ie the obligation to deduct UK income tax from a payment of yearly interest) if the interest payment is made by a deposit-taker and the investment is a 'relevant

Should I agree to take on joint liability under a contract? The not so helpful answer to that question is: it depends. It depends upon the type of contract you are entering, the bargaining positions of the parties involved and your relationship with the person you are contemplating taking joint liability with. If express words are not used in a situation where two or more people contract to perform the same obligation there is a presumption that they do so jointly. This presumption can be rebutted with express words of severance (White v Tyndall [1886-90] All ER Rep Ext 1527). In order to decide whether an obligation should be jointly undertaken it is helpful to remind ourselves of the effect of joint liability, several liability and joint and several liability under a contract. What is the effect of joint liability? Joint liability under a contract arises where two or more persons jointly promise to do the same thing in favour of another

It is pretty much impossible to create a concise, universally-accepted definition of leadership. Most of us have seen examples of good and bad leadership, but when it comes to pinning down just what it is that makes a good leader, we usually end up with a list of behaviours rather than a simple definition. In this Practice Note we attempt to get under the skin of leadership, understand how it differs from management and identify the key behaviours of great leaders. The difference between management and leadership There has probably been more time spent on trying to define the difference between a leader and a manager than on almost any other management topic. Often these definitions glorify the role of the leader at the expense of the role of the manager, which is unfortunate as an organisation requires skilled practitioners in both areas in order to remain successful. One analogy to clarify the difference between the manager and the leader is: a manager is the driver of the car trying to get from A to B and the

A non-circumvention clause prevents a party (A) from dealing directly with the suppliers or customers of the other party (B) (ie and thereby circumventing or bypassing dealing with Party B), and aims to minimise damage to Party B’s business. It is an extension of the concept embodied in a non-solicitation clause (see eg Precedent: Non-solicitation clause—commercial contracts) and may be used in a number of scenarios, eg: • non-disclosure agreements—to prevent the recipient of confidential information from working directly with businesses associated with the discloser • supply agreements—to prevent a customer from circumventing the supplier and dealing directly with the manufacturer or wholesaler

Where a commercial lease falls outside the provisions of Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954), the right of the tenant to remain in occupation comes to an end at the termination of the period of the lease. Occupation thereafter is based upon the position between the landlord and the tenant, and may be by way of a licence or a tenancy at will. This is often the case where the parties are continuing to negotiate the terms of a new lease. However if no agreement is ultimately reached, the landlord is entitled to vacant possession of the premises and is entitled either to rent if a tenancy at will or licence or mesne profits if the period of overstaying is without the consent of

Part 1 of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 (TLNPCTUAA 2014) regulates consultant lobbying, the business of making representations to government on behalf of clients. Consultant lobbyists are required to be registered with the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists (ORCL), and disclose the names of their clients on the register maintained by the Registrar. They are also required to disclose whether they subscribe to a publicly available code of conduct. This will not affect most firms, but you should not assume the legislation is irrelevant to you. Guidance issued by the ORCL (ORCL guidance) clearly anticipates that law firms can be caught in the lobbying regime. For more information, see Practice Note: Lobbying and law firms, which also explains the registration process and obligation to file quarterly information returns. This Practice Note explains what types of activities constitute lobbying under TLNPCTUAA 2014. Statutory definition of lobbying You will be deemed to carry on the business of consultant lobbying if all of the following criteria apply:

What is marshalling? Marshalling gives a singly-secured creditor a right in equity to require a doubly-secured creditor to satisfy itself or, be treated as having satisfied itself, as far as possible out of the security to which the singly-secured creditor has no claim. This does not mean that the doubly-secured creditor is forced to realise any particular security in preference to another. The doubly-secured creditor is entitled to realise its security in any order that it sees fit but if it realises its security over the common secured assets and the enforcement proceeds are not sufficient to repay both creditors, the singly-secured creditor can require the doubly-secured creditor to marshal its other security. Marshalling permits the singly-secured creditor to rely on the benefit of the surplus security of the doubly-secured creditor over the property of the common debtor. The singly-secured creditor is in effect (but not as a matter of law) subrogated to the doubly-secured creditor's rights under the surplus security (to the extent of the debtor's secured liabilities to the

We do not carry a definition of ‘material breach’ per se, as a definition of such term would have to be individually drafted to reflect the detail of the particular contract. However, if the parties wish to define that term, they would typically set out the individual circumstances