Insights

Sarah Reynolds, Partner, of the firm’s Commercial Law and Data Protection Department, and Rita Higgins, Solicitor, explore the issue of the use of cyber security attacks and what businesses can do to protect themselves.

In a recent judgment, the Court of Appeal (“the Court”) clarified the law relating to “legal holds” and in so doing, emphasised the duty on the part of legal advisors to advise their clients of their obligation to take reasonable steps to preserve documentation, including electronically stored information (“ESI”).

“Microstrain Limited trading as CubicM3 -v- John Delany, Ivan McFadden Joseph (otherwise Joe) Brennan, Lukasz Piorunkiewicz, Jackie McGovern, Patrick (otherwise Pat) Gavin and Resolute Engineering Group Limited And by Order of the Court Stephen Neill, ADS International, Inc. and Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. The High Court Record No. 2020/7472P”

As we now start to see the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has on various aspects of the commercial sphere, one of the most common effects seen from a commercial real estate perspective is the increase in landlords and tenants agreeing to vary or alter the terms of their commercial leases.

In the article below, Paul McCutcheon sets out the latest Government proposals to mitigate bulk purchases by institutional investors. Two significant developments have been announced by the Irish Government with the intent to provide a significant disincentive to institutional investors seeking to purchase large parts or, indeed, whole housing estates before they reach the market.

On the 14th May 2021, in the case of Atlantic Diamond Limited v An Bord Pleanála and EWR Innovation Park Limited (High Court Record No. 712/2020 JR) the High Court quashed a decision of An Bord Pleanála (“ABP”) to grant permission to a developer under the Strategic Housing Development (“SHD”) procedure to develop a residential development comprising 336 apartments over six residential blocks at Docklands Innovation Park, East Wall Road (an industrial estate) which would have left three of the existing operating industrial units in place.