Your commercial news round-up: criminal barristers, Bank of England, ESG, Pink Floyd, Tottenham Hotspur, British Cycling, Patagonia

Reading time: four minutes

The Law Society announced its 178th president earlier this week. Lubna Shuja, who takes over from I. Stephanie Boyce, became the first Asian, first Muslim and seventh woman to be president of the Law Society. Shuja outlined her five main aims of her presidency at the Law Society’s annual general meeting. As well as keeping up with news within the legal profession itself, to demonstrate sound commercial awareness you must also stay up to date with other commercial news. Read this week’s round-up for our choice of some of the week’s commercial stories.  

• Criminal barristers have voted to accept the government’s revised 15% fee uplift (£53 million), putting an end to their strikes over legal aid. According to the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), of 2,605 barristers, 57% said ‘yes’ to the government’s new offer – they were asked the following question: “Do you accept the offer from the MoJ as set out in the accompanying proposal document and therefore vote to suspend the action?”. Despite the vote, the “criminal justice system remains chronically underfunded” and the CBA has warned that, if required, barristers will resume strike action if the government fails to prevent it “tipping over the cliff edge”.

• The Bank of England’s emergency bond-buying scheme is due to end on Friday 14 October. The UK’s central bank has been buying bonds called long-dated gilts – a type of government bond that forms a proportion of pension pots – in a bid to stabilise their price. Following Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget announcement, the pound fell to a record low with bond prices also plummeting, which is why the Bank of England stepped in. Andrew Bailey, the bank’s governor, said this support was always supposed to be temporary and on Tuesday warned pension funds that they’ve “got three days left now […] to sort it out”.

Meanwhile, the interest rate on two-year fixed-term mortgages is now 6.3%, according to MoneyFacts. Rates of more than 6% haven’t been seen since the 2008 financial crash, while the number of mortgages on the market has dropped since the mini-budget was announced.

• A new PwC report has found that the global value of environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds will grow to nearly $34 trillion by 2026 as investors look set to expand their ESG-related assets under management. “The surge in demand for ESG investments highlighted in our survey exceeds almost all previous expectations,” PwC’s Olwyn Alexander said. As the rise in ESG-related assets comes about, there are growing concerns over ‘greenwashing’, with the Financial Conduct Authority preparing to monitor the labelling of ESG products to prevent firms from misleading promotion to investors.

• English rock band Pink Floyd has been in talks since May to sell its music catalogue, which could bring in $500 million, making it one of the most valuable music rights deals in history. However, the band’s members are yet to reach an agreement over the deal’s tax structure and assets, as well as reported controversial claims from bassist Roger Walters who resides in the US, according to the Financial Times. The talks have sparked interest from investors and music companies including Sony Music and Warner Music.

• In sporting news, Tottenham Hotspur and Google are in talks over a potential naming rights deal for the club’s 62,850-capacity stadium in north London. If it goes ahead, the deal will be the first of its kind for the club since it opened its new stadium in April 2019. Meanwhile, Shell UK and British Cycling have signed an eight-year deal that will see the oil and gas company become an official partner. Among other things, the partnership will focus on accelerating British Cycling’s goals to reach net zero, as well as improving the diversity and accessibility of the sport with a new programme called Limitless.

• US sports retailer Patagonia is suing Walmart for allegedly selling t-shirts “bearing near identical copies of Patagonia’s P-6 Trout logo and artwork” and replacing Patagonia’s PATAGONIA trademark with the word ‘Montana’. According to the lawsuit filed with the US District Court for the Central District California, Patagonia alleges that supplier Robin Ruth produced and sold the clothing that Walmart then “purchased and resold” in several of its retail stores.

Check the News every Thursday for this weekly commercial news round-up.

Follow LawCareers.Net on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram for regular business news updates.