Shoosmiths Podcasts

Sustainability: Unlocking the potential of hydrogen

The UK’s first official Hydrogen Week takes centre stage this week, bringing together stakeholders across the UK to celebrate and promote the role of hydrogen in reaching net zero (NZ).

Headed up by the North West Hydrogen Alliance (NWHA), the week, which runs from February 13 to 19, aims to bring together all regions of the UK to progress the nation’s role in the emerging hydrogen economy, and capitalise on the opportunity the sector offers for meeting NZ targets, and driving green economic growth.

Reducing our carbon emissions requires huge transformations in the way our industries are powered, connecting through the grid and heating our homes. Hydrogen is central to reaching NZ emissions, providing a low carbon fuel which can help us switch towards a greener future.

Developing a hydrogen economy is key to unlocking future investment, creating new jobs and boosting supply chain opportunities. Hydrogen is set to play a major role in helping the country reach NZ with the Climate Change Committee (CCC) predicting we will need 250 TWh of hydrogen by 2050.

In this podcast, Shoosmiths real estate partner John Palmer discusses green hydrogen and its role in the energy transition in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK with David Surplus OBE, director of B9 Energy Storage Ltd.

Rail Talk with Shoosmiths: Episode 1 - A Rolling Stock view point

Welcome to our latest podcast series ‘Rail Talk with Shoosmiths'. During each episode, we invite industry experts to discuss current 'hot' topics and to explore different areas of the rail industry.

In episode 1, Michelle Craven-Faulkner, Partner and Rail Sector Lead, talks to Nick Hughes, Sales Director UK & Ireland at Hitachi Rail about things from a rolling stock point of view.

Please listen to the podcast and send any feedback to Michelle.Craven-Faulkner@shoosmiths.co.uk 

Shoospeak HR: Should employees without children be entitled to some form of ‘parental’ leave?

Andy Graham and Amy Leech debate the hot topic as to whether employees without children (whether by choice or otherwise) should be allowed some form of equivalent ‘parental’ leave.

Listen to the podcast below and send us your feedback to shoospeakhr@shoosmiths.co.uk. 

The Shoospeak HR podcast is brought to you by the national employment team at UK law firm Shoosmiths. Tune in for your fix of the latest legal views, thought provoking discussions and opinions about all things employee relations and human resources.

In Early - The Crypto Podcast (Episode 6)

Blockchain litigation lead, Matt Green will be hosting our latest podcast series, 'In Early - The Crypto Podcast' - Listen to episode 6.

In this episode Matt talks to Ryan Winchester, the Founder of the Goofy gopher Mining Club, an NFT project that mines multiple coins using a variety of ASIC miners, and is designed to make mining more accessible to the public.

They speak about use best cases for NFTs, fractional mining and why he’s chosen Cardano, as well as about Goofy Gophers, how he is building trust with buyers in a world of NFT rug pulls and scams, and why he’s chosen a 90's game nostalgia interface and fantasy lore to market his mining project, recognising the future of gaming and rejection of the corporate look.

Listen to the podcast below and send your thoughts to matt.green@shoosmiths.co.uk.

Journey Through a Contract: Liabilities

Episode 19 of our Journey Through a Contract sees Joel Murphie and Paul Nightingale  consider the thorny issue of how to address liability in commercial contracts.

More often than not this is the most hotly negotiated provision in contracts. Joel and Paul help navigate some of the key points to be aware of and how to consider effective ways to limit, exclude or address liability including the way in which caps and exclusions of liability may interact with indemnity provisions. A fantastic guide to help you consider what risks there could be in your contract and how to address them.

Listen to the podcast and send us your feedback to shoopod@shoosmiths.co.uk.

The Journey Through a Contract series is brought to you by the Commercial and Projects team at Shoosmiths, aimed at explaining the basic terms of a commercial contract.

Journey Through a Contract: Entire Agreement

Episode 18 of our Journey Through a Contract sees Caroline Chester and Khillan Gohil consider the need to importance of entire agreement provisions within commercial contracts.

Quite often one of those tiny clauses as the back end of a document, the importance of this provision should not be under estimated and Caroline and Khillan discuss some of real risks in ignoring this or missing it from your drafting.

Listen to the podcast and send us your feedback to shoopod@shoosmiths.co.uk

The Journey Through a Contract series is brought to you by the Commercial and Projects team at Shoosmiths, aimed at explaining the basic terms of a commercial contract.

Journey Through a Contract: Variation

Episode 17 of our Journey Through a Contract sees Caroline Chester and Khillan Gohil discussing the importance of variation provisions within commercial contracts

Caroline and Khillan consider the risk of not including a variation provision, the consequences of not following the requirements of any such provision and the clear benefits to including suitable wording in your contracts. What is key is that the more complex and lengthy your contract is, the more detail provisions will be needed, but as a minimum care should be taken to ensure that everyone is aware as to how a contract may be varied.

Listen to the podcast and send us your feedback to shoopod@shoosmiths.co.uk

The Journey Through a Contract series is brought to you by the Commercial and Projects team at Shoosmiths, aimed at explaining the basic terms of a commercial contract.

UK-India Commerce: Possibilities for mutual growth in FinTech

FinTech is important to the financial services sector in both India and the UK. A trade agreement could facilitate FinTech growth and deepen trade between the two countries.

Kiran Desai, Head of Shoosmiths Brussels is joined by colleague Prakash Kerai to host Prashanth Ramdas of Khaitan & Co. and Jana Psarska of TechUK to discuss these three main topics:

1. Policy, including the UK-India 2030 vision, investments by Revolut and NPCI; the state of UK FinTech; new banking licences; digital infrastructure in India; the UK-India Fintech ‘bridge’; and regulatory co-operation perhaps similar to that between the UK and Singapore.
2. Digital lending, including existing regulatory business environment and complaints; the Reserve Bank of India guidelines on digital lending; UK proposals and the role of the Ombudsman.
3. The regulatory environment, including innovation Pathways Support; the Regulatory Sandbox; operational resilience arrangements; mutual recognition of regulatory standards; and cooperation between banks and FinTech entities.

Listen to the podcast below and send please send any questions or feedback to Kiran.Desai@shoosmiths.com

 

Journey Through a Contract: Confidentiality

Episode 16 of our Journey Through a Contract sees Felicity Forward and Rachel Rossdale consider the need to ensure that confidentiality provisions are suitably covered within commercial contracts.

Felicity and Rachel discuss some of the key considerations to be given to confidentiality provisions including the risk of defining Confidential Information too broadly, the key things to be covered in a well drafted clause including carve outs and exclusions and ending with some thoughts on what protection there is for parties in the absence of a Confidentiality provision, if any.

Listen to the podcast and send us your feedback to shoopod@shoosmiths.co.uk. 

The Journey Through a Contract series is brought to you by the Commercial and Projects team at Shoosmiths, aimed at explaining the basic terms of a commercial contract.”

Birmingham Sustainability Podcasts - Episode 3: Part 2

Simon Needle, Principal Arboriculturist and Ecologist, City Design Team, Birmingham City Council

• Exploring ways in which the industry (private sector) is and can currently get involved with improving the city and bringing nature back, meeting the target of the governments set target of 10% biodiversity net gain
• Beyond 2027 pilot ending, defining the 25-year city nature plan and the implementation of the City of Nature Board
• Explaining the platform called ‘Match My Project’
• Exploring what is involved in the Urban Forest Masterplan
• Explaining what is meant by the local nature recovery network, how it works and how it is linked to the Environment Act 2021 and the Make Space for Nature Report