Expert Analysis

• UK Internal Investigations Are Taking An Ungainly Turn

  

  The London High Court's decision in Serious Fraud Office v. Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation has a lot to say on the vitality of legal professional privilege and the conduct of internal investigations in the U.K., but its flawed logic and lack of pragmatism feel like the latest installment in SFO Director David Green's pushback against U.S.-style investigation procedures, say Matthew Herrington and Tom Best of Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

• Once More Unto The Breach — Rehearing In Newman?

  

  On Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York decided to seek appellate review of several aspects of the recent insider-trading decision in U.S. v. Newman and Chiasson. En banc rehearing petitions are rarely granted in any circuit, and are particularly rare in the Second Circuit, which hears the fewest number of rehearings of any circuit in the country, say Eugene Ingoglia and Gregory Morvillo of Morvillo LLP.

• UK Tax Advisers Are Beyond Legal Advice Privilege

  

  A recent judgment from the U.K. Supreme Court in one of the most significant decisions on legal advice privilege for many years. Prudential PLC v. Special Commissioner of Income Tax, which dealt a blow to tax advisers and other nonlegally qualified service providers who provide legal advice to their clients, confirmed that — consistent with the position in the U.S. — legal advice privilege only protects communications to or from a qualified lawyer, say Richard Hornshaw and Daniel Cohen of Bingham McCutchen LLP.