By Julius Melnitzer | March 23, 2025
DENTONS MUST FACE AML CHARGES
The Law Society Gazette reports that the UK’s High Court has overturned the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal’s (SDT) dismissal of anti-money laundering charges against Dentons. The SDT ruled that Dentons’ breach was “inadvertent” and did not amount to professional misconduct. But on appeal by the SolicitorsRegulation Authority, High Court Justice Beverley Lang overturned the decision and remitted the case to a new panel. Lang reasoned that there was “no universal requirement” that findings of misconduct depended on degrees of culpability; rather, they arose only where they were “inherent in the rule in question”. In this case, Lang concluded, the “only evaluation” required from the SDT was whether Dentons had complied with the applicable provisions of the Money Laundering Regulations.
Related Article: Dentons cleared of AML charges
PE INVESTS C$2.27 BILLION IN UK LAW FIRMS
The latest IRN UK Legal Services Market Report has concluded that PE businesses or PE-backed law firms funded some 25% of legal mergers and acquisitions in 2024, up from 20% in 2023. Merger specialist Acquira Professional Services reports that investments in the profession in 2024 exceeded C$1 billion, nearly 45% of the $2.27 billion spent in the last five years. According to The Law Society Gazette, PE’s targets included international firm DWF, conveyancer Movera, Fletchers, FBC Manby Bowdler, HF, and Lawfront.
Related Article: Branding, skillful mergers the keys to Big Law Success
APPEAL COURT REMOVES COURT-ORDERED SHELL EMISSIONS TARGETS
The Hague Court of Appeal has overturned the Hague District Court’s landmark imposition of emissions targets on Shell in its 2021 ruling in Millieudefensie v. Royal Dutch Shell PLC. According to a McInnes Cooper client bulletin, the District Court’s decision was “the first time any court has ordered a private corporation to align its policies with the climate change goals under the Paris Agreement” and “sent shockwaves through the energy world”. But the bulletin’s authors caution that the appeal court’s reasons don’t get companies completely off the hook. To the contrary, McInnes cites four important takeaways: companies still have a general duty of care to combat climate change; the courts can invoke rights-based legal principles in the climate litigation context when determining whether corporate wrongdoing has occurred; the duty of care to combat climate changes includes a duty to consider the “carbon lock-in” effect, which recognizes that because fossil fuel infrastructure requires significant initial investments that cannot be reversed and have a long payback period, companies have the incentive to use this infrastructure for as long as possible; and that Paris Agreement targets are net global goals, as opposed to sector-specific goals, and it is these net goals that are determinative in assessing causation.
Related Article: Why Canadian companies are preparing for a wave of ESG cases coming their way
HOGAN LOVELLS MAKES “UNPRECEDENTED” DISCLOSURE OF PRIVILEGED DOCUMENTS
The UK High Court is considering whether to allow claimants to make use of some 4,321 privileged documents inadvertently released to them by Hogan Lovells LLP, counsel for the defendant, the Gambling Commission, in the course of litigation challenging the National Lottery competition. According to The Law Society Gazette, the claimants’ lawyer maintained that “the most senior lawyers” at Hogan had reviewed the documents, thereby entitling his clients “to assume the documents have been disclosed to us not by mistake”.
Related Article: FCA rejects privilege for end product where claimant fails to show how document reveals legal advice
PENSION RISK TRANSFER ON A ROLL
Canada’s risk transfer market had a banner year in 2024, when it achieved a market milestone of $60 billion of cumulative pension promises transferred from defined benefit pension plans to insurers,according to the Overview of the 2024 Canadian pension risk transfer market released by Sun Life’s Defined Benefit Solutions team. Among the key insights in the report:
- Around 130 defined benefit plan sponsors purchased group annuities last year, insuring over 37,000 Canadians’ pensions, and more than 240,000 since 2017;
- 2024 saw over $3 billion transacted in inflation-linked annuities, more than the last three
- years combined; and
- In the last 4 years, 38% of market volume was from repeat buyers.
Related Article: Nortel Pensioners Lose $200M Refund Battle with Ontario’s PBGF
Julius Melnitzer is a Toronto-based legal affairs writer, ghostwriter, writing coach and media trainer. Readers can reach him at [email protected] or on his website.