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The spouse visa, which is also called the Marriage Visa, is the type of visa you should apply for if you wish to enter and remain in the UK to live with your partner longer than six months.

How do you qualify for the spouse visa?

To qualify for the spouse visa, your partner who lives in the UK and you who wants to join your partner or spouse must meet the criteria set by the UK immigration authority. The primary condition for a spouse visa application is that the applicant and the UK resident should be 18 years old. British law does not recognise marriages of people below 18 years of age.

The other eligibility conditions are:

  • The person the visa applicant wants to join is a citizen of the United Kingdom.
  • The UK recognises civil partnership or marriage.
  • The relationship between the involved parties has existed for at least two years before you file the visa application.
  • If you are engaged to a  UK resident, show proof that you will get married within six months.
  • Show proof that you and your partner will enter the partnership within six months if the proposal is for a civil partnership (same-sex relationship).
  • The partner who is in the UK must meet the financial requirement set by the immigration authorities.
  • The visa applicant must meet the English language requirement.

Spouse visa application checklist

When you apply for a UK spouse visa, you must prepare several documents. To ensure that you will have everything, here’s the list of documents.

  • Spouse visa application (Form VAF4A)
  • Valid passport with an empty page and your previous passports
  • Two passport-sized colour photos (following the guidelines)
  • Proof of financial capability
  • Proof of English language requirement
  • Evidence of your relationship
  • Your full name and date of birth
  • Previous immigration applications, if any
  • National insurance number, if any
  • Certificate of criminal record
  • Date of birth and nationality of your parents
  • Biometric information
  • Proof of accommodation in the UK
  • Receipt of payment of spouse visa fees

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The financial requirements

The law requires that you and your spouse in the UK prove that you have a combined income that is about £20,000 per annum. The proof of financial subsistence of the partner living in the UK may be the salary (earned in the UK), cash savings, pension money, and non-work income. The proof of income of the UK resident includes bank statements, copies of payslips (6 months), and a letter from the employer stating the title, employment history, and the current salary.

Other stipulations

The spouse visa applicant who is outside the UK should apply online. The visa application process, if everything is in order, is about 12 weeks or longer if there are issues with the application. If approved, you may stay in the UK for two years and six months.

It might be difficult to navigate the UK spouse visa application process. It will be helpful to hire an immigration solicitor to ensure that you can prepare all the requirements, arbitrate for you, and do all things legally possible to get your spouse visa.

Professional athletes are entitled to workers’ compensation and various coverage benefits if they are not offered a fair payment through the compensation program. Based on the type of sport, workers’ compensation laws vary from state to state.

For instance, professional boxers and jockeys, who have to deal with physical damage in every match, have to face the most complications with their workers’ compensation coverage. Because it’s common for individuals to get grave injuries in the sports sector, it’s important for athletes to make sure that they’re insured and can receive compensation for their injuries. If you’re wondering whether you’re entitled to workers’ compensation as an athlete, here’s what you need to know. 

Why Is There A Need For Workers’ Compensation Insurance For Fitness And Sports Businesses?

A workers’ compensation insurance program is meant to cover lost wages and medical expenses for work and sports illnesses and injuries. It can help workers, including professional players acquire financial help to either regain their original strength to get back to their profession or change their profession or retire with a pension to sustain their lives. Moreover, it’s mandatory insurance that every sports team needs to have for its players.

1. It Can Be A Life Saver

There is always a physical risk to players when it comes to fitness and sports activities. If a player incurs a muscle injury while practicing or performing a sports activity, it is considered a work-related injury. In this scenario, it is the duty of the sports team business owner to compensate for the medical bills due to the sports injury.

Instead of paying the complete amount from their pocket, the sports team owner can get compensation for treating the injury using the workers’ compensation scheme. Moreover, this claim is also liable to cover missed wages while the player undergoes a recovery period.

If a player incurs a muscle injury while practicing or performing a sports activity, it is considered a work-related injury.

With workers’ comp insurance, athletes can get help for:

  •   Emergency ward costs and immediate medical bills
  •   Partial wages lost while the injured player is undergoing a recovery session
  •   Physical rehabilitation costs and other medical expenses

2. It Helps Sports Business Owners

There can be a case where the player employed by the sports team owner decides to sue the business owner over a sports injury. In such cases, workers’ compensation schemes can help employers get the financial help needed to fight the lawsuit. This type of scheme is known as employer’s liability insurance, and it can help cover the following:

  •   Court costs
  •   Attorney’s fees
  •   Judgments and settlements

Whether the lawsuit is strong or not, a sports business owner might still need to compensate for the injuries of the player out of pocket if no insurance covers it.

Types of Sports Injuries 

Professional athletes can get injured during a game or have physical issues that develop over a long period. No matter what type of injury, they are entitled to compensation under this program so they can sustain their livelihood while they recover or re-train for other work (if permanent disability). The most common injuries for which professional players are entitled to receive workers’ compensation are:

  •       Spine or back injury
  •       Herniated disks
  •       Torn ligaments or ACLs
  •       Joint injuries to the elbow or knee
  •       Muscle tears
  •       Traumatic injuries to the brain and concussions
  •       Fractures and broken bones
  •       Rotator cuff issues and shoulder impingement

Professional athletes can get injured during a game or have physical issues that develop over a long period.

When Athletes Are Eligible For Workers’ Compensation Benefits

Any professional athlete who experiences injuries after sports is eligible for this insurance scheme. In most cases, the workers’ compensation program can provide the most benefit due to severe damage leading to long-term or permanent disability, or when the athlete’s body is in no condition to work anymore after their sports career ends. Problems due to joint pain may also receive some compensation, but we recommend choosing a good lawyer who can help build a strong case for you, ensuring monetary benefits.

How Can athletes Lower Their Risks?

Fitness and sports business employees are at high risk when it comes to sports injuries. If a fitness instructor or dance instructor gets an injury while working, he or she has a right to acquire an insurance claim, which can incur a higher workers’ compensation premium for the sports business owner or employer.

It’s in the hands of the employer to ensure that such risks of sports injuries are mitigated in the first place. To make sure that such mishaps don’t happen, they can try creating a safer environment for the employees. For that, they can use the following techniques:

  •   Maintaining exercise equipment regularly
  •   Safety training for the employees and athletes
  •   Rules to use proper footwear at the workplace

Such steps can help lower the risk of workplace injuries, which can help you decrease your workers’ comp insurance premiums.

Baseball player preparing to bat

How Can Athletes Calculate Their Compensation Rate?

The general rule to calculate the cost for a workers’ comp is based on the following formula:

Experience modification rate x Classification rate x (Payroll / 100) = Premium

The premium that you need to pay in this scheme is calculated based on each $100 that you take out from your payroll. The classification rate is the type of sports activity or works your employees perform for you. Your experience modification rate is the claims history of your employed player and the payroll is per $100.

It’s important to note that every state has its own laws and requirements for workers’ compensation programs. For instance, it’s mandatory for every New York-based Pilates studio to have workers’ comp insurance for its employees, even if the employee has a part-time job over there. On the contrary, sports business owners in Alabama are only obligated to carry this insurance if they have more than five employees with them.

Even if a professional athlete is not affiliated with any team or sports business, he or she still has a choice to buy this policy for self-protection.

Obtaining A Life Pension

Players are also entitled to receive a lifetime pension in cases where their body has incurred over 70% injuries, leading to permanent disabilities. The pension might not be too high, but it can still vary based on specific statutory laws for the workers’ compensation insurance in the area. Insurance companies will try providing a small pension for the players. That’s why it’s recommended to hire workers’ compensation experts who will help negotiate fair monetary coverages for disabled players. It can be hard to live life if your body cannot do physical work anymore due to the degree of disability after your sports career, which is why taking help from such attorneys can benefit you.

Players are also entitled to receive a lifetime pension in cases where their body has incurred over 70% injuries, leading to permanent disabilities.

Benefits Provided To Permanently-Disabled Athletes

Professional athletes get coverage based on the level of disability due to the injuries. Besides acute injuries, players can also receive compensation for cumulative injuries that form over an athlete’s whole career. Furthermore, the degree of injuries and disabilities also have varying coverages. The amount of monetary benefit may also be received for players based on the period of injury.

Claiming Compensation After A Long Hiatus

While most sports athletes will claim compensation due to a sports disability or injury within a couple of days, some might not be fit enough to file a claim. Furthermore, it’s also possible that they weren’t aware of this insurance scheme available for their benefit. If a professional athlete is not aware of workers’ compensation rights, they still have the right to file a claim in some states to try to obtain compensation for the losses. You may have to learn the rules and regulations regarding this type of delayed claim in your state first.

Vocational Rehabilitation

Athletes who get a permanent disability due to sports injuries cannot return back to become professional players. For such players, a vocational rehabilitation program offers a re-training compensation of up to $16,000 to acquire education or training for some other work. Usually, the funds acquired through this program can be applied by an athlete to pursue a trade school or college education. Furthermore, a portion of the funds is paid to the athlete as weekly compensation while they complete their studies at the college or school.

Successfully Filing for Workers’ Compensation

Unfortunately, getting workers’ compensation as a pro athlete is not that easy. The rules defining monetary and healthcare claims from this insurance policy differ based on states, injury types, and career periods. This coverage is quite complicated for sportspersons, and it can also take a lot of time to get the benefits for a filed claim. Mostly, individuals are not aware of the type of injuries or losses they are eligible to claim.

If a professional athlete is not aware of workers’ compensation rights, they still have the right to file a claim in some states to try to obtain compensation for the losses.

In other situations, the lack of information can lead to a weak case. That’s why it is recommended to get an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer who will properly study the ins and outs of the case to help you get fair benefits. Their skills and experience in this field will be genuinely beneficial for winning such a case successfully.

Costs of Filing a Claim

As an employee at a sports business, you may need to file a claim for workers’ compensation. As mentioned earlier, it could be hard to file one on your own because of the numerous rules and regulations that need to be followed state-wise. Instead of doing it yourself, you can use an attorney to help you with the formalities, evidence, and documentation needed for filing the claim.

When you approach an attorney for this issue, they will get you evaluated to note down all the incurred injuries, which will act as proof for building your claim case. This could include MRI or X-rays. You might have to pay the expenses for the evaluation reports, but some attorneys may do it for you free of charge as well. They usually apply their fee later when the claim for the workers’ compensation is received. 

Other Insurance Policies For Professional Athletes

No doubt, a workers’ compensation program has a lot of safety and financial benefits for employees, but it is not the only insurance policy available. Moreover, workers’ comp has its limits as it doesn’t offer coverage for some of the risks. In short, it offers healthcare and monetary benefits to workers who get injured during their work-related duties, and in this case, it’s on the field or after strenuous exercise. 

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With that said, professional sports teams purchase this insurance policy in case athletes get injured, so if you’re on a professional team, all your expenses during recovery should be taken care of. The insurance provider covers a filed claim for an injury after studying the case. That’s why, sports business owners may also consider checking out other policies, like the following:

1. Business Owner's Insurance Policy

This insurance policy uses a blend of a general liability insurance policy with a commercial property policy and that too at a decreased premium. As owning and managing a sports team is a type of business, this policy can be quite beneficial at supporting some of the claims applicable to this business.

2. General Liability Insurance

GLI policy provides coverage for costs related to property damage and customer injuries. Furthermore, you can also use general liability insurance to cover injuries due to advertising, like when a competitor accuses your business of slander.

3. Professional Liability Insurance

With the help of this policy, you can get insured for omissions and errors that usually occur at work. For instance, one of your employees got injured while undergoing improper training. In such a case, professional liability insurance will help compensate for the medical bills and damages. 

Injuries in sports are common, but that doesn’t mean athletes should not be compensated for it. Most sports teams get workers’ compensation coverage for their athletes to help them in times of need. So make sure to use this privilege if you or some professional athlete you know needs help for a sports disability or injury. It’s best that you hire an attorney to guide you in case you are in need of a workers’ compensation claim. Or, you may also take help from a lawyer as a sports business owner to compensate for your employee’s sports injury fairly. 

A number of UK law firms are issuing “COVID bonuses” to their lawyers in recognition of their work during the pandemic.

International firm DLA Piper is offering staff a choice of an additional week’s pay or a week’s holiday on top of regular pay reviews and bonus awards set to go ahead over the next few months. Simon Levine, the firm’s global co-chief executive, said that staff had performed exceptionally throughout the health crisis.

“Their fortitude, supportiveness and collaboration with colleagues, clients and our communities has been remarkable. The extra week’s pay or holiday is just one small way of us saying thank you to them for everything they have achieved in such a challenging year,” he said.

Other law firms have also committed to issuing pandemic bonuses to employees.

Lawyers and support staff at Allen & Overy will be given a one-time bonus equivalent to 5% of their annual salary, which a spokesperson said is “in recognition of their hard work and contributions in very challenging circumstance over the last 12 months”.

Like DLA Piper’s bonus offers, Allen & Overy’s staff bonuses will be granted in addition to their usual performance bonuses and salary reviews.

Meanwhile, Ashurst has doubled the size of its bonus pool and is preparing to issue £1,000 rewards to all of their global staff in July. Paul Jenkins, Ashurst’s global managing partner, credited the firm’s performance in 2020 to “a great team effort”, necessitating the additional bonuses.

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£1,000 cash awards are also being issued by Walker Morris to their partners as thanks for their “incredible support” in the last financial year.

The bonus announcements follow on the heels of other City law firms issuing rewards to their staff for exceptional performance during the pandemic. Clifford Chance, Herbert Smith Freehills and Linklaters have all pledged to issue 5% bonuses to their staff in recognition of good work during an unusually punishing year.

UK law firms are now positioning themselves to tackle the new year and an expected rise in financial services litigation over the terms of pandemic loans issued in 2020. Individuals struggling with debt of their own may benefit from advice on loan repayments.

Much like running any type of organisation, managing a law firm requires the ability to make sound decisions. You need to allocate your resources properly and create systems that raise productivity and reduce overhead.

On top of this, there is also a need to finance marketing activities and make payments on malpractice premiums, and there's a good chance that you might overlook details that could have a big impact on the bottom line. To help maintain your law firm's revenue stream, here are a few tips you can follow:

1. Identify your benchmarks

To start, take a look at your firm's expenses and revenue stream. If the former surpasses the latter, then it is high time to make crucial changes. Identify what you want to reduce or maximise. Most firms would focus exclusively on reducing their cost-per-client metric. Others would put more effort in generating high quality leads in a bid to raise profitability.

Regardless of your goals, you should have a realistic number to aim for. If your firm specialises in personal injury cases, aim for a benchmark of 45 leads per month. This will depend mostly on the number of lawyers you have that work in this area, so always aim for a target that follows the SMART model.

2. Improve your billing system

Attorneys may be the lifeblood of any law firm since they are the ones that generate revenue, but it's your billing system that puts your financials in order. Without an effective system for tracking billable hours and unpaid invoices, your attorneys risk not getting paid for the actual amount of work they put in.

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An effective workaround to this is accurate timekeeping. Have your attorneys take note of every client correspondence, double check their invoices, and report any issues or inaccuracies. Doing so prevents the risk of billable hours falling through the cracks.

3. Automate and outsource

Considering the amount of work that's involved, your firm has to spend money on paralegals and assistants. Having too many on the payroll will only drain funds faster, but on the other hand, having less staff on board would mean stretching yourself and your lawyers too thin. It's because of this dilemma that law firms consider outsourcing activities such as legal research, marketing, and day-to-day admin work to freelancers and virtual assistant agencies.

Law firms can also choose to automate attendance policies and use practice management software for everything else such as time tracking, calendar management, and contact database management. Whether it’s delegating tasks to offshore assistants or using the latest tools, both of these options can optimise your productivity at a lesser overhead.

There are other ways that can help maintain a positive cash flow for your law firm, but the important thing here is to be proactive when seeking out issues that eat into the bottom line. It’s your role as the managing partner to prevent these issues from surfacing and create opportunities for further expansion.

Dillon Eustace recently advised BGF Investment Management, an investor in growth companies, on its equity investment in Vasorum Ltd. Dillon Eustace acted on behalf of limited partnerships BGF Ireland 1A and BGF Investments, both managed by BGF Investment Management. This investment is part of BGF’s €250 million fund dedicated to growth funding in Ireland.

The investment represents a major equity investment for Vasorum Ltd and a strategic addition to BGF’s portfolio. Vasorum Ltd, founded in 2007, is a Dublin based high-growth medical device business specialising in sophisticated devices used to close arterial punctures in vascular, cardiology and radiology procedures. The company operating from Dublin has more than 70,000 patient implants to date in both the EU and USA.

The Dillon Eustace legal team on this transaction was led by Lorcan Tiernan, Partner and Head of Corporate M&A, and supported by Owen Brayden.

Babiaczyk, Skrocki i Wspólnicy Law Firm advised the buyer on the deal, whereas SMM Legal supported the seller.

The Babiaczyk, Skrocki i Wspolnicy team consisted of Senior Partner Mirosław Babiaczyk and Partner Łukasz Walaszek.

 

An Interview With Mirosław Babiaczyk Senior Partner, Babiaczyk, Skrocki i Wspólnicy Law Firm

Did any particular issues arise during the transaction?

When representing a client in the acquisition process it is of the utmost importance to take into account the client’s interests and suggestions, as well as paying attention to the position of other participants. Opposing viewpoints of the transaction parties may result in conflict situations that we try to avoid. In the said acquisition of Perfect Eye Optic by Avenir Medical Poland no such particular issues arose. We had the pleasure to cooperate in a friendly atmosphere and the whole process was carried out without delays.

What are positive signs that a merger will be a good move for your client?

Avenir Medical Poland constantly works on improving its position on the market. The transaction will enable the company to expand its activity to new locations and to reach new clients. Acquisitions such as this one solidify the buyer’s market position.

Are transactions like this one expected to increase in the retail industry?

As a law firm, we provide legal services to a number of entities within the retail industry – with a wide range of specialisation and different places on the sales ladder. For example, we cooperate both with the shopping centre owners as well as with the companies that use such shopping centres as a distribution channel.

From our perspective, COVID-19 and governmental restrictions have made the current situation challenging for the retail industry. However, we expect the upcoming months to be a time of increased activity for such transactions. Mergers and acquisitions, similar to the transition to online distribution channels, are examples of the way in which companies can ensure development.

In the past, it would have been obvious to the naked eye, but with the rapid advancements of AI in the last few years, it has been increasingly more difficult to spot whether or not the person you are seeing on video is real.

It sounds almost unbelievable – perhaps something from a futuristic sci-fi movie. But we have seen shocking and slightly terrifying examples of ‘deepfakes’ over the past few months. Where it may have once taken an expert with a camera and highly technical software, it is now available for a novice to change an image of a deceased relative into a video of them speaking simply via a phone app.

Video manipulation of this sort can cause an array of issues – most of which are obvious. With fake videos of Obama calling Donald Trump a ‘complete dipshit’, Mark Zuckerberg bragging about having ‘total control of billions of people’s stolen data’ and a fake Tom Cruise practising golf on TikTok, the FBI has issued a blunt warning saying, "malicious actors almost certainly will leverage synthetic content for cyber and foreign influence operations in the next 12-18 months". Such synthetic content can refer to any manipulated content – visual (videos and photos) and verbal (text and audio), including deepfakes.

The apprehension towards deepfakes has been around for a while. In 2018 we were questioning whether videos will be able to be deciphered as real or fake only a year after deepfakes emerged on the internet for the first time. Back then, the quality of the content made it obvious it had been tampered with. “In January 2019, deep fakes were buggy and flickery”, said Hany Farid, a UC Berkeley professor and deepfake expert to Forbes.

Deepfake content online is also growing at a rapid rate. According to a report conducted by Deeptrace, at the start of 2019, there were 7,964 deepfake videos online. Nine months later, that figure had already risen to 14,678. “I’ve never seen anything like how fast they’re going. This is the tip of the iceberg”, explained Farid.

From public safety, fake news and revenge porn, deepfakes have caused an uproar, with people feeling sentimental by bringing old pictures of deceased relatives to life, to victims being at the brunt of a doctored video that features them doing things they have never done. This month we have seen a mother charged with multiple counts of harassment after reportedly using explicit deepfake photos and videos to try to get her teenage daughter's cheerleading rivals kicked off the team, which essentially exhibits the way in which any person can manipulate content for a deleterious motive.

Not all is doom and gloom as this new phenomenon is also seen as the ‘future of content creation’. A few months ago, TV viewers in South Korea were watching the MBN channel to catch the latest news, but the usual news reporter, Kim Joo-Ha, wasn't actually on the screen. Viewers had been informed that Joo-Ha wasn’t real beforehand and the channel has since considered continuing the use of deepfakes for some breaking news reports. South Korean media reported a mixed response after people had seen it, with some people being amazed by the realism, and others feeling concerned that the real Kim Joo-Ha might lose her job. Despite the possible negative outcomes, this, like any technological advancement, showcases the good that could come from innovative AI, especially for businesses.

Deepfakes have the potential of being a national security risk.

"This is the future of content creation”, Synthesia’s - a London-based firm that creates AI-powered corporate training videos - chief executive and co-founder Victor Riparbelli said to the BBC.

Research conducted by Kietzmann et al has shown that are clear business opportunities with this AI development. Some are still to materialise while others are being realised already – such as Synthesia’s corporate videos that can allow in-house training content to be translated to a plethora of different languages. In their research, deepfakes were split into five different categories: voice swapping  – which could make audiobook recording a lot easier; text-to-speech – which could give a voice back to those (such as stroke victims) who have lost the ability to speak intelligibly; video face-swapping – which has the potential of the aforementioned in-house training video or, University of Southern California's Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions In Testimony project which allows visitors to ask questions that prompt real-time responses from Holocaust survivors in the pre-recorded video interviews; full-body puppetry – which could see enhancements in gaming and perhaps stunt doubles in movies; and, lip-synching  – which could make dubbed films a lot easier to watch.

Evidently there is a bag full of exciting possibilities with the rise of deepfakes, but we cannot ignore the issues it may bring.

Where does the law stand on deepfakes?

Deepfakes have the potential of being a national security risk. A prime example is how it has the potential to destabilise politics – look at what mere concerns of a televised address from their President being a deepfake did to Gabon. Last month, a political group in Belgium released a deepfake video of the Belgian prime minister giving a speech that linked the COVID-19 outbreak to environmental damage, calling for drastic action on climate change. Some would have thought the video was real. Not only is there potential to spread fake news, but there is potential of causing unrest, a rise in cybercrime, revenge porn, fake scandals and a rise in online harassment and abuse. Even video footage could potentially become useless when used as evidence in court.

The regulation of such technology demands the law to be responsive and in tune with complex, evolving trends.

New laws to regulate the use of deepfakes will be important for people who have damaging videos made of them. Take photoshop laws, for example. In the U.S., the FTC has been enforcing truth-in-advertising laws for many years but they have been slow to respond to image retouching. However, in countries around the world, legislators and regulators are beginning to take action with laws being passed, such as the Photoshop Law in Israel which requires advertisers to label retouched images. Even though this touches more on body image and its mental impacts rather than cybercrime or political wars, these laws are in place to reduce the risk of consumers being deceived. If expanded to deepfakes, content creators may have to state when their video is not real. Producers and distributors could also easily fall foul of the law, as it can potentially infringe copyright laws, breach data protection law, and be defamatory if it exposes the victim to ridicule; the laws on revenge porn could also be applicable for deepfakes, such as those created by Telegram -  predominantly a messaging app, which facilitates autonomous programmes (referred to as “bots”), one of which can digitally synthesise deepfake naked images[1]. A report found that 70% of Telegram users use its deepfake bot to target women and that, as of the end of July 2020, at least 104,852 fake nude images had been shared.

The regulation of such technology demands the law to be responsive and in tune with complex, evolving trends. But, as we all know, the law is often slow to respond. The UK is considering legislation whereby social media platforms could face fines for facilitating such content. This proposal could make companies such as Telegram take more responsibility for the safety of their users and tackle harm caused by content or activity on their service. Progress has faltered, and the legislation may not be passed until 2023, perfectly showcasing the slow nature of the change in legislation. A similar approach could be taken by the U.S., if it was to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act – a law which gives Internet companies almost complete civil immunity for any content posted on their platforms by third parties; but it has been discussed time and time again and remains to open a can of worms for speech censorship. The state of California has already experimented with banning deepfakes, enacting a law last year that made it illegal to create or distribute deepfakes of politicians within 60 days of an election[2]. However, the first amendment which protects citizen’s rights to freedom of expression may make it difficult to expand this any further.

People need to be cautious when it comes to viewing content, now more than ever.

In Kietzmann et al’s research as aforementioned, they propose a possible solution, referred to as a R.E.A.L. framework: Record original content to ensure deniability, Expose deepfakes early, Advocate for legal protection, and Leverage trust to counter credulity. “Following these principles, we hope that our society can be more prepared to counter deepfake tricks as we appreciate deepfake treats”, the paper states.

People need to be cautious when it comes to viewing content, now more than ever. More importantly, however, the law needs to be clearer on what is legal and illegal when it comes to deepfakes. From commercial concerns, such as who would own the rights to a deepfake video of a deceased celebrity, to cybercrime concerns, with the anonymity and endless nature of the internet, it will be a tricky law for governments to decipher.

[1] https://theconversation.com/can-the-law-stop-internet-bots-from-undressing-you-149056

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/robtoews/2020/05/25/deepfakes-are-going-to-wreak-havoc-on-society-we-are-not-prepared/?sh=5eb6e6177494

Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy (“MBH”) acted as sole counsel to Palm Hills Developments (“PHD”) and Taaleem Management Services Company (“Taaleem”) in its joint venture to build a private university in PHD’s flagship project Badya, situated in West Cairo. “We are pleased to announce that the transaction documents were successfully signed today, 29 September 2020”, MBH stated in a press release on their website.

 

Under the joint venture, with a total investment cost estimated around EGP 1.6-1.9 billion, PHD will hold 40% and Taaleem will hold a 60% of the economic interest.

 

The MBH team assisting on the transaction was led by Tamer El Hennawy (partner and co-head of corporate and M&A and capital markets) and Samih Talaat (senior associate) and included Mohamed Kandel (associate).

Gross Brown has advised Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Itaú BBA and Santander, as joint book-runners, in the Republic of Paraguay’s (i) USD 225,858,000 principal amount of a further issuance of the Republic’s 5.400% Bonds due 2050, and (ii) USD 600,000,000 principal amount of the Republic’s 2.739% Bonds due 2033, both under, under Reg S/Rule 144A and issued in January 2021. Gross Brown also advised Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Itaú BBA and Santander, as dealer managers, in the repurchase of the Republic’s 4.625% Bonds due 2023 of USD 338,506,000, using proceeds of the aforementioned issuance.

 

The team was led by Partner Sigfrido Gross Brown, together with Associates Mauricio Salgueiro and Sol Avalos.

 

The Mexican cement company Cemex plans to issue circa $1.7 billion worth of bonds, at an annual rate of 3.875% and a term of ten years, to support ongoing business activities, including debt repayment. This offering was guaranteed by several subsidiaries of CEMEX located in Mexico, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. CEMEX is one of the largest cement companies in the world based on annual installed cement production capacity and one of the largest ready-mix concrete companies worldwide. CEMEX primarily engages in the production, distribution, marketing, and sale of cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, and clinker.

 

 

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