Legal Update for In-House Lawyers – Webinar

In the third session of our new UK Real Estate Sector webinar series for in-house lawyers, our sector experts from various practice areas across the firm presented an overview of significant legal changes affecting the sector. Please see a summary of key discussion topics below.

Key topics of discussion:

1. Bethan Odey, a Legal Director in DLA Piper’s Employment team; discusses a new proactive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment, particularly highlighting the impact of this duty on employers in the Hotel and Leisure sector.
   
   
2. Peter Fletcher, a Legal Director in DLA Piper’s Property Litigation team; reviews recent cases applying the Building Safety Act 2022 and discussing whether a landlord commission when placing an insurance policy is recoverable.
   
   
3. Linzi Penman and Sebastian Georgescu, a Partner and Associate in DLA Piper’s Intellectual Property and Technology team; discusses the opportunity landlords and tenants have to take advantage of data sharing under the coming EU Data Act in smart buildings.
   
   
4. Linzi Penman and Alexa Smith, a Partner and Legal Director in DLA Piper’s Intellectual Property and Technology team; provide advice on how the hyper-personalisation of data in the Hotel and Leisure sector can be done in a lawful and effective manner.
   
   
5. Andrew Smith and James Carter, Partners in our Litigation team; provide an outline of the benefits of arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism, highlighting where the sector could make use of it.
   
   
6. Jodie Montagnon, an Associate in our Construction team; provides an overview of a recent case holding that WhatsApp messages could conclude a building contract and gives advice on construction contract negotiation in light of the US administration’s trade tariffs.
   
   
7. Gemma Grunewald, a Legal Director in DLA Piper’s Tax team; gives a brief tax update, discussing how recent changes introduced by the government may affect the sector.