If you're an ardent observer of Italy's Ferragosto, or consider yourself more an Aoûtien than a Juillettiste, you'll hold August in some reverence, a month entirely your own, in which no one, not even your boss, can interfere.
But if you're one of the many who worked the month, you might have felt that August this year was anything but a period of rest. Hurricanes, storms, even floods, formed the backdrop to a few weeks in which world leaders and lawmakers rigidified legislation and applied the final touches to manifesto promises that seemed to typify an emerging, worldwide protectionist slant, characterised by heightened trade barriers and broadened punitive measures.
The new landscape has led one law firm consultant to suggest that, to an extent, "all lawyers are going to be regulatory lawyers, or as a minimum have to have a clue about the bread and butter regulatory changes going on in their countries, not just sector-specific changes".
"Because there are loads [of changes]," they added.
Fortunately, the martyrs stuck to their desks over the summer, or otherwise too afraid to detach themselves from their laptops, had taken notice. Lawyers across the globe have been busy.
In the U.S., law firm trade practices have scurried to apprise themselves of President Joe Biden’s new order aimed at restricting American investment in Chinese semiconductors and AI to rapidly respond to client queries, which have come thick and fast, as Abigail Adcox explains.
August has also been significant for tech giants operating in Europe—which some say has adopted a hypervigilant stance on tech majors, who, from August 25, face the possibility of being hit with a new type of bumper fine if they fail to play by the bloc’s rules. On top of antitrust fines that can reach 10% of a company’s global annual revenue and privacy fines that can go up to 4% of a company’s global annual revenue, tech giants also now face fines of 6% if they violate a new EU law known as the Digital Services Act, as Linda A. Thompson explains.
And once thought of as a fringe economic issue, climate change is now a political football, with policies in Europe already having a direct impact on business. And last week, Australia became the first country with an AAA credit rating to warn investors that climate change is a systemic risk as regards government bonds, as Christopher Niesche writes. It follows a settlement with an activist investor who alleged that the government had misled investors by failing to disclose climate change risks in bond issue documents. It is one of the clearest examples of a country constructing a more tangible link between climate risk and investment.
Away from trade, tech and the environment, nations have also become hawkish on corruption, fraud and bribery...
