News

People Management: Chetal Patel on key workers and points-based immigration

The government’s points-based immigration scheme has passed its second reading in parliament, despite concerns it will be too restrictive for key sectors including care, food production and supermarkets. Chetal Patel, partner in our Immigration department, has spoken to People Management on this scheme. This new points-based scheme will come into force in January. The bill, …
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Bates Wells completes work to get emergency loan finance to charities and SEs

We are pleased to announce that our Charity and Social Enterprise team has just completed work on the formation of a new Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund to provide charities and social enterprises with emergency coronavirus related loan finance. The fund will be run by our client Social Investment Business and is backed by an …
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Civil Society: Coronavirus and charities’ real estate

Amanda Gray and Mark Traynor from our Real Estate team have written to Civil Society to assess the implications of the lockdown for landlords and tenants. In their article, the discuss how we’ve all heard plenty about the challenges facing the charity sector as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and about the various government …
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Victoria Hordern writes for Privacy Laws & Business: Is Morrisons to blame for actions of an employee with a grudge?

Victoria Hordern, partner and head of our Data Privacy team, has recently written an article for Privacy Laws & Business. In the article Victoria discusses what the UK Supreme Court’s decision in Morrisons tell us about liability under data protection law. The article focuses on an incident where a Morrisons’ employee maliciously uploaded payroll data …
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The Independent: Lucy McLynn on minimum wage investigations over volunteers for coronavirus testing

Lucy McLynn, partner in our Employment team, has provided comment to The Independent over the news that Boots could be risking investigation under minimum wage legislation after recruiting hundreds of volunteers to carry out coronavirus testing for the government. Lucy has commented that treating the testers as volunteers “feels pretty abusive” and may fall foul of minimum wage legislation, …
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Bates Wells profiled in the Times Best Law Firms 2021

Bates Wells has been recommended across three areas in this year’s Times report. Bates Wells have been commended for its work in Administrative & public law; Charities and Immigration. The Times Best Law Firms 2021 has recognised Bates Wells as “Best for Charities” in this year’s report. Drawn from surveys among our peers in the …
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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 …
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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.
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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 …
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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 …
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Coronavirus pandemic: Chetal Patel answers immigration FAQs for Thomson Reuters Practical Law

Chetal Patel, partner, has contributed an explainer to Thomson Reuters Practical Law portal on what COVID-19 means for the UK’s immigration system, and what pitfalls organisations need to avoid in this turbulent environment. In her piece Chetal addresses questions relating to the following topics: How to respond if you’re a visa holders in the UKApplying …
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A bumpy road ahead for international data transfers

Victoria Hordern and Michael Charalambous examine the implications of new European recommendations for organisations transferring data outside the EU. Does your organisation use a US vendor for data processing? Do you regularly share information about your employees, customers or supporters with parts of your organisation based outside the EU or with partners outside the EU? …
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