Robust, timely reporting to the board underpins effective governance. Such reporting equips directors to decide with confidence, discharge oversight duties, and confirm that everyday activity remains aligned to the organisation’s strategy. With the board’s demanding mandate, finding the right balance between the volume and depth of information for directors versus that provided to the executive team is frequently difficult. Differentiating between board and executive information needs As outlined in the piece on defining the line between board and executive management, the board and executives work at distinct altitudes within the organisation. Executives are absorbed in operational delivery, whereas the board concentrates on long-term strategy, risk, and accountability. Accordingly, reporting cadence, style and substance ought to mirror these distinctions. Board of directors Frequency: Meeting cadence varies between organisations and needs, commonly monthly or quarterly. Level of detail: Strategic, succinct, and centred on outcomes and risk. Key...

Though a mature field of law, the regime on dawn raids has drawn fresh scrutiny after the General Court’s ruling in Michelin (Case T 263/23). That decision led to the partial annulment of a Commission inspection decision. This limited success sparked debate over the evidential and procedural thresholds the Commission must satisfy when carrying out surprise inspections lawfully. A subsequent ruling of the General Court in Red Bull (Case T 306/23) restates the breadth available to the Commission at the preliminary investigative phase as it seeks to identify material capable of underpinning its case regarding suspected breaches of competition rules. The scope of the Commission’s discretion The Commission enjoys a wide margin of discretion to authorise an unannounced inspection where there are reasonable grounds to suspect an infringement of competition rules. That discretion is firmly grounded in the legal framework of Regulation 1/2003 and in the...

American multinational technology and pharmaceutical companies operating in Ireland generate over 75% of Ireland’s corporation tax receipts, which in turn represent around a quarter of the nation’s tax income, according to a report from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. Although businesses in these sectors have mostly escaped direct tariff rises under measures pursued by President Donald Trump, he has lately signalled that duties aimed at those industries are forthcoming......

Directors must advance the company’s best interests, while also adhering to legal requirements that dictate what must be revealed to shareholders and how their interests are considered in corporate decision-making. When decisions were taken with the benefit of legal advice, the ‘Shareholder Rule’ created uncertainty about who could access that advice in future disputes, in the absence of a statutory footing. On 24 July 2025, in Jardine Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd No 2 [2025] UKPC 34 (Jardine), the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council issued a landmark judgment abolishing the ‘Shareholder Rule’. That rule had functioned as an exception to legal advice privilege, preventing a company from maintaining privilege over its legal advice vis-à-vis its shareholders in later litigation. Although the ‘Shareholder Rule’ had stood in England and Wales for more than 135 years, the Privy Council found no sound...