The past decade has witnessed a much heavier compliance burden being placed on companies trading in the EU: the new rules cover competition, the environment, financial disclosure and discrimination. Each new set of rules produces an increased risk of infringement.
At the same time, new procedures have made legal challenges by consumers and business clients easier, with the UK spearheading the trend with new "consumer representative actions" against cartels introduced in October 2005. Other EC Member States allow class actions and mass tort litigation. It is therefore no accident that major US class action firms are now opening offices in Europe.
Clyde & Co has a unique combination of skills to offer to its clients: we have one of the leading competition and financial compliance teams in the City and probably the largest litigation practice of any major UK firm.
In 2006, Clyde & Co had more cases in the Commercial Courts than any other UK firm, we represented the Consumers Association in the first "representative action" being brought against a cartel in Europe, and advised the UK Government in the high-profile Railtrack shareholders' action. We also regularly advise clients in the financial services, energy, shipping and aviation industries on compliance with FSA, UK and EC regulations.
Our class action team is an inter-disciplinary group, bringing together litigation experts in competition, product liability and shareholder disputes. The group also has wide experience of parallel class action litigation being brought in several jurisdictions and we are currently advising clients involved in parallel actions in the US, Canada, Australia and various EC Member States.
With regulators now linked by extensive cooperative agreements, close liaison across different jurisdictions and coordination disclosure strategies is essential for effective defence. The growing trend towards coordinated class action litigation in different countries makes the same an essential feature of any successful legal defence.
The class action team provides the following services:
- Strategic litigation advice
- Compliance counselling
- Litigation risk assessment, including insurance cover advice
- Litigation services in the EC and the USA