“Three ex-company directors accused of helping the owner of Barnsley football club make millions by concocting ‘fairytale’ financial results for software firm iSoft are facing a retrial after a jury failed to return a verdict on Wednesday.”
The Guardian, 8th August 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“As Lord Davies reported in February 2011, at the current rate of change it will take over 70 years to achieve gender-balanced boardrooms in the UK. Almost a decade ago, the Higgs review of the role and
effectiveness of non-executive directors called for greater diversity among board directors, but the response on this front has been poor. Given that encouragement has failed, it is no wonder
that plans are afoot to prod listed companies into increasing the number of women on their boards.”
Full story (PDF)
Cloisters, August 2012
Source: www.cloisters.com
“In many cases where a person wishes to leave an employment and establish a new business, that person may wish to tell colleagues about the plans and to encourage them to join him or her in the new venture. It may be that there is disaffection in the workplace and that there is a general, if unexpressed, desire to move on.”
Full story (PDF)
11 KBW, 22nd June 2012
Source: www.11kbw.com
“Laws barring people who have had severe mental health problems from jury service and from being MPs or company directors are to be abolished following an extraordinary debate in which several MPs gave moving accounts of their own experiences of the illnesses.”
The Guardian, 14th June 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“In the context of determining whether to disqualify a company director for misconduct in the direction of an insolvent company the use of the expression ‘exceptional circumstances’ was better avoided. The expression ‘extenuating circumstances’ was to be preferred, because the fact finder’s task was to consider the evidence as a whole, including extenuating circumstances, and to decide whether the director had fallen below the standards of probity and competence appropriate for persons fit to be company directors.”
WLR Daily, 1st June 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Cavenagh v William Evans Ltd: [2012] EWCA Civ 697; [2012] WLR (D) 164
“Where an employer had elected to lawfully dismiss an employee under the term of the service agreement on payment of salary in lieu of the notice period, the employer was liable to pay the salary in lieu to the employee as an accrued debt. The employer could not later avoid payment on the basis that the employee had committed a gross misconduct prior to the date of the dismissal which the employer had discovered after the date of the dismissal.”
WLR Daily, 24th May 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“Victims of the collapse of Christmas hamper firm Farepak could be a step closer to justice as the company’s directors face a judge in London’s high court.”
The Guardian, 24th May 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Smith v Butler [2012] EWCA Civ 314; [2012] WLR (D) 96
“Where the terms of a managing director’s appointment to a company made no provision for the express delegation of any specific powers by the board of the company to him, although there might be an intention to implicitly delegate some powers to him, such delegation would not usually have the effect of excluding the powers of the board and the managing director had no implied power to suspend the company chairman or exclude him from the company’s premises. The implied powers of a managing director could include a power to commence legal proceedings, unless the board expressly or by implication decided that such proceedings ought not to be taken or was unlikely to ratify the commencement of proceedings.”
WLR Daily, 15th March 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“Were the statutory duties in the Companies Act 2006 intended to be simply a replacement without change?”
Full story (PDF)
11 KBW, 23rd November 2011
Source: www.11kbw.com
“One of the key figures behind a Mayfair-fronted Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to five years imprisonment after admitting his part in a multimillion-pound wine and spirits investments fraud targeted at American doctors.”
The Guardian, 17th August 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“A businessman has been ordered never to improperly reveal confidential information belonging to a company where he used to be a director.”
OUT-LAW.com, 5th April 2011
Source: www.out-law.com
Progress Property Co Ltd v Moorgarth Group Ltd [2010] UKSC 55; [2010] WLR (D) 218
“The sale of a company’s assets to a shareholder was not an unlawful distribution of assets if the court concluded that it was a genuine commercial transaction at arm’s length even if it appeared with hindsight that the sale was at an undervalue. The court’s conclusion depended on a realistic assessment of all the relevant facts and not simply on a retrospective valuation exercise in isolation from all other inquiries. The essential issue was how the transaction was to be characterised, and that was a matter of substance and not form.”
WLR Daily, 8th December 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
“A director of a corporate director of a company was not a de facto director of that company, who was thereby liable for the misuse of its assets, if his acts were done entirely within the ambit of the discharge of his duties and responsibilities as a director of the corporate director.”
WLR Daily, 24th November 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
“Headhunters spot new trend in law firms hunting for directors with non-legal backgrounds as pressure over corporate governance increases.”
The Guardian, 1st November 2010
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
In re Stakefield (Midlands) Ltd and others [2010] WLR (D) 249
“A defendant to disqualification proceedings brought by the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform would not be entitled to have the proceedings struck out on the basis that the Secretary of State had committed a breach of duty by failing to obtain evidence or otherwise to investigate. Where, however imperfect the investigations might have been, the Secretary of State had in fact assembled evidence of a defendant’s unfitness to be concerned in the management of a company, it was for the court to determine at trial whether the Secretary of State had made out his case.”
WLR Daily, 13th October 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
“Plans for directors to submit to an annual shareholder vote form part of an overhaul of the code of conduct for the UK’s top 350 listed companies.”
BBC News, 27th May 2010
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“A former chairman of Wrexham FC has been banned from being a director of any UK company for seven years.”
BBC News, 30th March 2010
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Safeway has been given permission to continue a groundbreaking lawsuit against former employees and directors which seeks to recover competition law fines from the ex-employees and directors involved in the breaches.”
OUT-LAW.com, 22nd January 2010
Source: www.out-law.com
The City regulator has started criminal proceedings against four former directors of UK-based healthcare software company iSoft.
BBC News, 6th January 2010
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“A company boss was jailed for four years today after trying to buy his second wife happiness with more than £500,000 plundered from global accountancy company KPMG.”
The Guardian, 15th September 2009
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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