A&O Shearman Europe insights

The Employment Rights Act 2025 marks a significant shift towards a more union-friendly landscape. In our short 7-minute podcast, London partner Gordon Bartlett and Senior Associate Greta Morand discuss headline changes for employers, including new workplace access rights, mandatory statements for workers on their right to join a trade union and the lifting of industrial action restrictions. These...

The chemicals sector is facing a perfect storm—chronic structural weaknesses colliding with acute market volatility. How are corporates and creditors responding? And what does the road ahead actually look like for investors and restructuring professionals navigating the turbulence? Senior knowledge lawyer Christopher Poel (London restructuring) is joined by James Webber , London antitrust partner...

AI is no longer a future-state conversation in legal services. It's already reshaping how firms operate, deliver and create value. But what does responsible adoption actually look like in practice? How do you manage the cultural shift alongside the technological one?  Bénédicte Kurth , Luxembourg head of knowledge at A&O Shearman, sits down with Angela Clist , our global head of Advanced Deliv...

"Marry in haste, repent at leisure." The proverb predates modern M&A by centuries, but it could have been written for it.   Due diligence done badly means missed liabilities, mispriced deals and post-close surprises that can take years to unwind. So what does rigorous due diligence actually look like in practice? And how do you make the process less painful without cutting corners?  Victoria W...

The UK's prospectus regime has been fundamentally overhauled, and the implications for issuers, investment banks and investors are significant.   The Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regulations 2024 supersede the on-shored EU Prospectus Regulation from January 19, 2026. It separates admissions to a regulated market from wider public offers for the first time, giving the FCA new powers to s...

Episode 3: AI agents expand what organisations can do, and what attackers can target. AI-enabled phishing, deepfakes, prompt injection, model theft, expanded attack surfaces, nation-state agentic attacks: the threat landscape is evolving faster than most organisations' defences.   How do you build AI agent infrastructure that is genuinely secure? What does regulatory compliance look like in this c...

Episode 2: AI agents are reshaping how consumers and businesses interact with payments — but the regulatory landscape governing those interactions is shifting at the same time.   How do PSD2, PSD3, GDPR and UK rules apply when an agent is initiating or authorising a transaction? Who is liable when something goes wrong? And how can product, legal and risk teams turn regulatory complexity into compe...

Episode 1: AI agents are no longer theoretical. They are being deployed across industries, making decisions, executing tasks and operating with a degree of autonomy that is already outpacing the governance frameworks designed to manage them.   What are the use cases driving adoption? What governance challenges do they create? And what does the evolving regulatory landscape mean for organisations t...

Italy's financial regulatory framework is undergoing significant reform — and the proposed changes to the Italian Financial Act raise questions the funds industry has been grappling with for years. What do the new insolvency-related measures mean for Italian funds in practice? And do they finally resolve the long-running debate over the legal status of contractual AIFs?  Alberto Claretta-Assandri...

The relationship between European and U.S. asset managers is being reshaped by regulatory shifts, changing capital flows, and the growing appeal of new markets. For fund managers on both sides of the Atlantic, the opportunity to access unfamiliar markets has never been clearer, or more complicated to navigate.  Recorded live at Luxembourg's Private Equity Association flagship conference, LPEA Insi...

The UK's new failure to prevent fraud offence marks a step change in corporate criminal liability, and its implications for M&A are significant. Large companies can now be held to account for fraud committed by employees, agents, subsidiaries and other associated persons.   How broad is the offence? What does it mean for deal structuring and due diligence? And what practical steps should busin...

Annual reporting season brings a fresh set of demands, and 2025–2026 is no exception. With the UK Corporate Governance Code 2024 now in effect, changes to the directors' report and remuneration report to navigate, and sustainability reporting developments gathering pace, company secretaries and their teams have significant ground to cover.   What does current market practice for AGMs look like? Wh...

Luxembourg's reverse hybrid mismatch rule under ATAD 2 has long been one of the jurisdiction's most complex tax puzzles, particularly when it comes to the collective investment vehicle carve-out.   Has the uncertainty finally been resolved? And what do fund managers and tax advisers operating in Luxembourg need to understand now?  Johanna Tschurtschenthaler , counsel in A&O Shearman's Tax prac...

The Court of Appeal's overturn of the Petrofac restructuring plan and the subsequent High Court rejection of the Waldorf plan have sent shockwaves through the restructuring market. Both cases raise hard questions about what constitutes a fair allocation of restructuring value, and what evidence companies need to justify it. For anyone considering the restructuring plan as a tool, these judgments d...

Episode 3: The ICO is being restructured, and its enforcement powers are being expanded. And PECR — the rules governing direct marketing, cookies and electronic communications — is being significantly updated. For organisations already navigating a complex data protection compliance landscape, the changes introduced by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 have real operational implications.   What h...

Episode 2: One of the UK Government's central promises for the Data (Use and Access) Act was simpler compliance. But does the reality match the rhetoric?   For legal, data protection and compliance teams navigating GDPR, the Data Protection Act and PECR, the question is a practical one: do these changes meaningfully reduce the day-to-day burden, or do they simply shift it?  Senior knowledge lawyer...

Episode 1: The UK's Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 carries an ambitious promise: to unlock the secure and effective use of data, drive innovation, and reduce the compliance burden.   But does it deliver? And what do the changes mean in practice for businesses and organisations subject to the UK's GDPR, Data Protection Act and PECR?  Senior knowledge lawyer Emma Keeling and former ICO Deputy Commis...

Episode 2: Three sweeping legislative packages are set to redefine the legal and compliance landscape for Poland's financial sector. Understanding what they contain, how they interact, and what they mean for financial institutions is now a practical priority for compliance, legal and risk teams operating in the market.  Hosts Paweł Mruk-Zawirski  and Filip Główka dissect the three packages in deta...

The FCA's discussion paper on the future of UK mortgage regulation raises fundamental questions about how the market should work.   From interest rate stress tests and later life lending to variable income borrowers and customer vulnerability, DP 25/2 signals a potential shift in how the regulator thinks about risk, access and consumer outcomes.   What are the key proposals? What does this mean fo...

Luxembourg has made a deliberate choice to position itself as a destination of choice for international talent, and it has the tax and immigration infrastructure to back it up.   How does the country's framework for impatriates actually work? What makes its immigration rules attractive for skilled professionals and the companies that want to hire them? And how does Luxembourg's approach compare to...

As global economic dynamics shift and geopolitical tensions rise, Europe is recalibrating its investment landscape.   In this episode of the Global Insights podcast, former Financial Times EU correspondent Javier Espinoza is joined by leading A&O Shearman partners Catherine Di Lorenzo , Francesca Miotto , and Tim Stevens to unpack how the European Commission is reshaping its regulatory agenda...

Episode 5: Cyber insurance has moved from niche protection to a core component of enterprise risk management and the market is evolving rapidly.   But what do these policies actually cover? How do insurers assess and underwrite cyber risk? What does the claims process look like in practice? And as threats grow more sophisticated, from AI-enabled attacks to nation-state threats, are policies keepin...

Episode 1: Poland is embarking on one of its most significant deregulation drives in years.   The government's strategy to simplify laws, cut bureaucracy and better align Polish regulations with EU standards has major implications for financial institutions operating in or entering the market.   But what does the initiative actually involve? And how does it balance deregulation with investor and c...

The FCA's mortgage rule review marks the most significant rethink of residential lending regulation in years. What does simplification actually mean for firms operating under these rules today?   How will streamlined affordability assessments change how lenders handle borrowers looking to reduce their mortgage terms? And what has the retirement of previous FCA guidance left in its place?  Jean Pri...

Anti-money laundering (AML) regulation in Europe is undergoing its most comprehensive overhaul in years. What does the new AML package require of financial institutions?   How will virtual IBANs change compliance obligations across European markets? And what should firms be doing now ahead of the establishment of a new EU supervisory authority?  Konrad Zawistowski , specialist in banking and finan...