Karen Collins

Victoria Hordern speaks to LexisNexis on data transfers—the aftermath of Schrems II

Victoria Hordern, partner and head of our data privacy team, has recently been interviewed by LexisNexis to consider the impact of the judgment taken by the Court of Justice on 16 July 2020 in the Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland Ltd, Maximillian Schrems (Schrems II) case on European data protection law. This decision by …
Read more

Gift Aid and refunds of advance entry fees

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted charities to consider refunding donations that allow entry to visitor attractions. Gift Aid rules mean that this needs to be handled carefully. Bill Lewis and Susan Shi explain the finer points of entry refunds.
Read more

Coronavirus and recruitment in the UK

Our client was looking to hire a candidate already in the UK on a Tier 2 visa, initially on a part-time basis for a few months and then full-time. As all application centres in the UK are currently closed, leave to remain applications are being put on hold for the moment. We therefore advised our …
Read more

International recruitment queries

During the coronavirus pandemic our team have been assisting clients with issues such as if they have made offers of employment to candidates based outside of the UK. In such cases, the candidates were in the process of submitting their visa applications when the pandemic began to affect in the UK and many countries abroad. …
Read more

Anatomy of a rebrand – from BWB to Bates Wells

In June 2019, we stopped being Bates Wells Braithwaite, or BWB, and became simply ‘Bates Wells’. Catharina Waller gives the lawyer’s inside track on our recent brand refresh.
Read more

Personnel Today: Chetal Patel provides ten top tips on how employers can negotiate the Home Office sponsor licence regime

In a concise summary for Personnel Today of how the government’s sponsor licence regime impacts employers, Chetal Patel set out ten key points leadership teams need to be aware of if they want to stay on the right side of the Home Office’s regulations in this area. Describing the current status of sponsor licences, Chetal …
Read more

IR35 – What does your organisation need to know?

What is IR35? IR35 is a set of rules targeting the tax treatment of individual contractors who provide their services through an intermediary (most commonly a personal service company – “PSC”). PSCs are often owned and controlled by an individual contractor and an organisation (“the End Client”) will then contract with that PSC to obtain …
Read more

EU Settlement Scheme: new appeal rights

Appeal rights have now been introduced for those who submit applications under the EU Settlement Scheme. This is good news for those who are submitting their applications after the UK left the EU at 11pm on 31 January 2020.  We previously commented on the EU Settlement Scheme statistics, which show that by the end of December …
Read more

Mairead O’Reilly writes for Data Guidance: Children and compliance within the data protection landscape

Mairead O’Reilly, senior associate in our Data Privacy team, has written for Data Guidance on how the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted the lives of citizens everywhere, and arguably no group more so than children. In her article, Mairead discusses how the shutting down of schools, cultural establishments, and the simultaneous curtailment of recreational opportunities …
Read more

Chetal Patel speaks to Personnel Today: Does the latest COVID-19 immigration policy generate more questions?

As international travel remains disrupted, the Home Office has confirmed people planning to live and work in the UK can request a replacement visa with extended validity dates. But does this change leave more questions than answers? Chetal Patel, partner in our Immigration department looks at some of the areas of confusion in a recent …
Read more

Climate emergency and real estate

Reducing workplace emissions is a vital part of the UK’s goal to achieve net zero emissions. It is obviously a worthwhile aim, but achieving it will often involve navigating complex landlord–tenant–supplier relationships. Our Real Estate team look at how to manage the process of making positive changes.
Read more

Top tips on how to maximise Entrepreneurs’ Relief on share sales

The Chancellor’s Budget on 11 March did not quite abolish Entrepreneurs Relief (“ER”) as some predicted but instead made significant changes. Below are our top tips on how to now maximise ER (which is to be re-named business asset disposal relief for the tax year 2020/21 onwards) on share sales. A successful claim for ER …
Read more