Insights

London – October 4, 2023: Crowell & Moring U.K. LLP has been recommended in four practice areas in the Legal 500 United Kingdom 2024. In addition, partner Andrew Knight has been named as a leading individual for asset based lending. The firm’s full rankings can be viewed here.

London – June 30, 2021: Crowell & Moring secured a win on behalf of Dana UK Axle in a High Court judgment that culminates more than three years of intense litigation and seven years of engagement between Dana UK Axle and Freudenberg Sealing Technologies.  On June 28, London’s Technology and Construction Court issued its judgment finding fully in Dana’s favor and awarding all of the £11,243,026 claimed and an indemnity for future losses.  The court will award the client interest on this judgment as well, which will be a substantial additional sum.  Freudenberg will be ordered to pay Dana’s legal fees and expenses, the majority of which will be on an “indemnity” basis, and a £75,000 penalty for failing to accept an earlier Part 36 offer, which operates much like an offer of judgment in the U.S.

English law has long treated the choice between terminating for repudiatory breach and exercising a contractual termination right as consequential. Under the Financings[1] causation principle, a party exercising a contractual right for a non-repudiatory breach could recover losses accrued to the date of termination — but nothing more. Loss of bargain was out of reach unless the breach went to the root of the contract. A practical workaround, confirmed in Lombard,[2] was to designate the relevant obligation as a condition, elevating any breach to repudiatory status, but that device carries significant strategic risk if the termination is later found to have been wrongful.

The first applications to lift an automatic suspension under the Procurement Act 2023 (the Act) have recently been decided. In Parkingeye Limited v Velindre University NHS Trust & Anor [2026] EWHC 1019 (TCC), handed down on 1 May 2026, HHJ Keyser KC dismissed applications by two NHS contracting authorities to lift the suspension preventing them from concluding a car park management services contract. This is the first judicial consideration of the new test under section 102(2) of the Act.

Businesses affected by the Strait of Hormuz crisis are likely to be navigating both sides of the contractual liability equation: seeking to enforce protections while simultaneously trying to limit their own exposure. This balancing act will feel familiar to those who managed supply chain disruptions during the Covid pandemic or in response to Russian sanctions. But the scale of uncertainty and the severity of the current situation make it particularly challenging to chart a clear path forward. This note provides an overview of the English-law issues that have arisen in this current crisis and is relevant for companies and legal counsel seeking to understand and mitigate contractual risk in their supply chains, including for shipping, energy, commodities, and construction.

Hacking and malware attacks are now critical business risks for any organisation and their threat level and sophistication are ever increasing. As we begin 2022, securing data and networks, managing threats to infrastructure and having a comprehensive critical response plan in place are key.