Country Comparative Guides

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The Legal 500’s Country Comparative Guides are produced in association with the World’s leading lawyers and give the in-house community a practical overview of the laws and regulations in key jurisdictions, for specific practice areas.

Each country chapter is written by a renowned firm in an easy to use Q&A format. The Hot Topic articles provide analysis of current trends and developments within particular practice areas, giving our readership a deeper understanding of pressing issues within the specified sector.

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Testimonials

‘The Legal 500: Country Comparative Guides are really useful as an immediate ready reckoner/guide to understanding the laws and practices of different jurisditctions all over the world. The topics and content are relevant and well explained’ Head of Legal, Lanco Group

‘The comparative guides bring great value for international and cross-border practices…the tool "compare jurisdictions" available on the website is really useful.’ Partner at Jeantet

‘These Country Comparative Guides are informative, user-friendly, and strike an appropriate balance between detail and digestibility’ Partner at Frasers Law Company

‘The end product is really impressive. The format of the guide is friendly and the questions cover hot topics we typically are asked about by our clients.’ Partner at DLA Piper Dinu SCA

‘Great source for precise and concise information’ Lawyer at KLA Koury Lopes Advogados

‘A very useful guide’ Head of Legal, Compliance and Company Secretary at Signify

Hot Topics

Anti-Bribery & Corruption 2022: Current trends in the U.K. Market and Hot Topics

Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Lisa Osofsky, the current Director of the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office (the SFO), described 2022 as “the year of the trial” due to (an unprecedented) eight SFO trials listed in 2022 and early 2023. While the volume of trials reflects an increasing change of pace within the corporate criminal enforcement landscape in the UK, the …

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Ukraine: Temporary Protection Measures

Deloitte

Introduction Since 24 February 2022, over 4.3 million people have fled Ukraine. In response to the resulting humanitarian crisis, the European Union (EU) agreed to activate the 2001 EU Temporary Protection Directive for the first time on 4 March 2022. The EU Council Decision obligates Member States to grant immediate temporary protection to individuals leaving …

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“ Ordinary Course ” Covenants in U.S. Merger Agreements Post-COVID-19

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP

The phrase “ordinary course of business” has been, for decades, a staple of acquisition agreements, where it appears frequently in representations, warranties and covenants. Despite its ubiquitous use, it was not until recently that the Delaware courts for the first time ruled on what constitutes “ordinary course of business” when a company is facing unforeseen …

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Carve-Out Transactions: Particularities under Swiss Law

Bär & Karrer Ltd.

After the market experienced an unprecedented disruption in 2020 induced by a global pandemic and a subsequent economic downturn, a substantial recovery in market activity in general but also in transaction activity especially took place in the following year. The upswing also led to an increased level of carve-out trans-actions in Switzerland which thus continue …

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Cross-Border Financing Trends in Middle Market Transactions

McDermott Will & Emery LLP

INTRODUCTION At the start of 2020, the world could not have foreseen the impact of a global pandemic. The financing markets were as strong as ever, with robust liquidity within both the private equity and credit markets and well-positioned public markets on both sides of the Atlantic. Economic indicators such as commodity and oil prices, …

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Two Years On: The evolving challenges of COVID-19 and key emerging workplace trends

CMS Holborn Asia

Introduction Two years on from the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore’s economic outlook is looking much brighter than it was before. In the recent Budget 2022 statement issued on 18 February 2022, Minister for Finance Mr Lawrence Wong (the “Finance Minister”) announced that Singapore has started the year on a positive note. Having …

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Employees’ Personal Information Management under PRC Personal Information Protection Law

King & Wood Mallesons

A. Introduction With the rapid development of technology and the digital economy, data protection has been attached with more and more importance and we have seen a number of legislative developments in this space in China in recent years. As the first law targeted at regulating the area of personal information protection in the People’s …

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Corporate Governance: Introduction

Macfarlanes LLP

How important is corporate governance to an organisation, to global markets, and to society in general? As with most such questions, not everyone agrees. Many see good corporate governance practices as being of fundamental importance, not only to the efficient functioning of corporations and businesses, but to the validity of the corporation and the role …

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Hot Topic: Corporate Governance vs. Social Responsibility of Swiss Companies

Walder Wyss

Introductory Example A fast-growing Swiss corporation is faced with the opportunity to secure a large and extremely lucrative project in a promising developing country. The project would involve the establishment of a foreign entity and thus mean another important step towards expansion and growth. The said developing country provides for low wage labor force, and …

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New Government Tender and Procurement Law (GTPL) in Saudi Arabia

Al-Enezee Legal Counsel in association with EKP

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is the prime economy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The Kingdom’s public expenditure in infrastructure, health care, transport and other government-driven sectors is eminent in the MENA region. In an unmatched reform program under its vision 2030, the Kingdom is aiming to construct an economic, …

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Crypto M&A: Unique Legal and Regulatory Considerations

Allen & Overy

Introduction Crypto M&A is slated to reach a record high in 2021. With a $2.4 trillion[1] aggregate market value—which is now larger than the GDP of Canada—the crypto[2] ecosystem has gained a permanent seat at the table. Despite regulatory uncertainty, major governments banning crypto trading, and the perceived environmental impact, deal-makers from the finance, technology …

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‘Cyprus a flag of progress and quality. Ship Registration procedures and the benefits of Cyprus flag’.

A. Karitzis & Associates LLC

I. Cyprus shipping cluster Shipping has been one of the most important pillars of the Cypriot economy for decades, with the sector contributing around EUR1.034 billion to the island’s GDP per annum. With the 11th-largest ship registry in the world and the third in the EU, Cyprus has a large resident shipping industry, with over …

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Patent litigation and technical expertise problem of Judges in Turkey

Sezekkaplan Lawyers

PATENT LITIGATION AND TECHNICAL EXPERTISE PROBLEM OF JUDGES IN TURKEY I believe the notion of Patent has an individual technical value and dynamic within Intellectual Property Law. I can say that I have remarkably evaluated within my professional experience that a patent dispute has caused us- the mortal lawyers-many challenges because of the scientific data …

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A Digital Picture is Worth a Thousand Ether: NFTs and Digital Art

Slaughter and May

This year has seen an explosion in the popularity and value of non-fungible tokens or NFTs. Many will have seen news reports of sometimes enormous sums of cryptocurrency being exchanged for NFTs and may be wondering: Why? This article considers a possible answer to that question by looking at one of the most compelling use …

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EC Shines Spotlight on Nascent Competitor Transactions: New Art. 22 EUMR Guidance

McDermott Will & Emery Belgium LLP

I. Introduction On 26 March 2021, the European Commission (“EC”) published its “Guidance on the application of the referral mechanism set out in Article 22 of the Merger Regulation to certain categories of cases (“Guidance”). Driven by concerns that certain competitively significant transactions escape merger control review, the EC, via the Guidance and in contradistinction …

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Balancing on a Tightrope: Mandating COVID-19 Safety Protocols Versus Vicarious Liability

Akerman

The franchise business model is grounded in two main elements. First, quality and uniformity of customer experience. From the trade dress and signage, to the particular goods and services offered, to the method of operations, franchise networks rely customers having the same great experience across all branded businesses, regardless of location or the particular owner …

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SFIO – Super Regulator for Financial Sector Frauds?

AP & Partners

In the last decade India witnessed financial sector frauds of huge magnitude, which severely dented the financial sector. Non-Performing Assets rose to dangerous levels of USD 120.6 billion causing serious stress on the banking and non-banking financial sectors. While billions of dollars are involved in such frauds; investigation, tracing, and recovery of the same has …

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Modern Slavery and Corporate Supply Chain Compliance

Immigration Solutions Lawyers

Modern slavery is an umbrella term that is used to describe a range of slavery and slavery-like practices, including forced labour, labour bondage, involuntary servitude and human trafficking. Recognition of modern slavery has begun to gather momentum within the past couple of years and globally we have been seeing greater efforts to combat this human …

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Adoption of Electronic Signatures in Indonesia

ABNR Counsellors at Law

For the last two years, the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) has had a major impact on almost every aspect of life: Travel bans, lockdowns, and quarantining have become commonplace in the fight against the virus. Indonesia has faced significant challenges in dealing with Covid-19. Since 2020, the government restricted public activity, and business did not escape, …

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The COVID-19 Pandemic and Force Majeure Clauses

MoloLamken

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the accompanying government public health orders, caused the greatest economic turmoil in the United States in living memory. From March to April 2020, 22 million workers lost their jobs, causing the unemployment rate to soar from 3.5% to 14.7%. Several hundred thousand businesses collapsed. As people stayed home and cut consumption, …

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