Costs in Arbitration Proceedings and Tribunals

Project description
You are working in-house for a firm of Solicitors in Holborn and Westminster. One of the firm’s Assistant Solicitors, Berenice Duval, has been encouraged by her team leader (a Senior Partner)
to branch out into Arbitration work; this has been brought about because Miss Duval recently won a construction case on a novel point of law and it attracted a certain amount of attention in the specialist press. Following on from this the Senior Partner believes it would be a good career move for Miss Duval, and an interesting new direction for the firm, if she were to set aside one day per week to sit as an Arbitrator. She has allocated Fridays for this purpose.
Whilst construction law is her specialist area, having practised since qualifying at the age of 24, Miss Duval has never previously presided over a case; she has always argued them (and generally speaking has had the benefit of Counsel in doing so). As such, she needs your assistance with the following questions:

1. Miss Duval is considering making an award in favour of Booter Construction Limited in arbitration against Kwik Kuts Supermarket Limited. She is minded to order Kwik Kuts to pay Booter’s costs and direct that she should undertake the assessment of those costs. She would like
a memo from you explaining how she might best approach the procedures for the assessment
of costs, and particularly wishes to know how the provisions of the Arbitration Act 1996 affect this situation

2. In another Arbitration, the losing party, Skinner Technical Limited, has stated that Miss Duval may not assess the costs herself, as Arbitrator, but must refer the matter to a Court. Luckily this happened at half-past four on Friday; before she resumes the Arbitration next Friday, Miss Duval needs your guidance on whether there is any truth in this statement, and in what circumstances the assessment must go to Court

3. Miss Duval is used to dealing with parties who have secured the services of expensive legal teams, but in the same Arbitration, Skinner Technical Limited is appearing by its CEO Mr. Barry Skinner, a self-made man who, according to his Company’s accounts, could well afford legal representation but chooses to appear in person. Leaving aside the fact that this may be a factor in Skinner Technical Limited losing the Arbitration, a throwaway remark was made by Mr. Skinner at the conclusion of Friday’s hearing to the effect that “You’ll never see a penny of it anyway!” As such, as well as the assessment point above, Miss Duval wants advice from you upon how an Arbitration Award is enforced, so that she can tell Mr Skinner in no uncertain terms, what will result if he does not pay up.

4. Mr. Skinner also made several rather pointed remarks about having a young, female Arbitrator, stating that she did not know what she was talking about and that he was going to overturn her Award. Miss Duval is forty and has been practising in Construction Law her whole career, so she is completely unaffected by his rude remarks. However, just to set her own mind at rest, she would like your advice upon the circumstances in which an Arbitrator’s Award may be challenged

5. Miss Duval has taken on a case on behalf of her brother, Mr. Dominic Duval. He has been working in Facilities Management for an electronics firm but they have recently changed his role and he now finds himself answering the telephone, mopping out the toilets and doing other menial tasks at the whim of the Office Manager. He suspects that they are trying to drive him out and he wishes to claim Constructive Dismissal in the Employment Tribunal. Miss Duval is happy to assist him with this case; although it is out of her area of expertise she is confident that she can read up on it and he has not been able to find anyone else who is prepared to take it on as he is not in funds to pay for advice being somewhat impecunious. Miss Duval is, however, concerned lest a Costs Order may be made against her brother, and wishes to have your advice upon the circumstances in which such an Order may be made, and whether it is likely to happen here.

Your advice in Part 1 needs to be fairly detailed (1,000 words). Your advice in Parts 2 and 3 may be by way of a summary, but any relevant law should be cited appropriately and in particular you should address the particular situation in which Miss Duval has found herself. Parts 4 and 5 again require a higher degree of detail and should be 500 words each.

The effective use of knowledge is the key to sustained competitive advantage

Question One:
With reference to appropriate literature and
organisational examples related to the case
study, critically evaluate the advantages and
disadvantages of strategic alliances over other
forms of external strategic development such as
mergers and acquisitions, in a globalized
Environment.
«Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances»
·Definitions of the terms
·Advantages and disadvantages of Mergers, Acquisitions and Strategic Alliances
·Current issues related to the case study industry
-Both from the case study and further reading

Question Two:
“The effective use of knowledge is the key to
sustained competitive advantage”. Discuss this
statement with reference to the strategic
importance of knowledge within the energy
industry.
«Knowledge Management/Environment»
·Definition of the terms
·What is knowledge?
·Tacit v’s Explicit Knowledge
·SECI Model (Nonaka paper)
·How do organisations share knowledge?
·Why do they share knowledge?
-Examples both from within the case study industry and further reading

Question Three:
“An organisations strategic focus should take
into account people, planet and profit, for them
to be considered truly socially responsible”.
Critically evaluate this statement with reference
to academic literature and examples from the
energy industry.
«Corporate Social Responsibility»
·Again, define the terms (or the difficulty of doing so)
·Origins of CSR
·Link to Stakeholder Theory
·The debate on the legitimacy of CSR
-Newer arguments (Greenwashing, etc)
·The main theories (e.g. Carroll, Elkington, etc)
·Organisational examples
-From case study industry and beyond

References
·In text references should be used to support your definitions, theories and discussions
·They only need to be as follows:
-Carroll (1979; 2000)
-British Gas (2013)
-BBC (2014)
·Full references at the end of the essays are not required

Case study notes for Business Strategy Exam Summer 2014.
Important:
A clean copy of this case study will be provided for you in the exam.
These notes must be handed in with your answer booklet.
The global energy industry is incredibly complex and dynamic. This industry in the UK alone contributed £102 billion in value to the economy in 2012 and invested £11.6 billion in the same year, over 10% of the total UK investment.
The global demand for energy, with emerging nations increasing their consumption as output increases, has led to predictions that there will be a growth in energy demand of up to 40% by 2030. This global expansion of the energy industry has led to organisations expanding to meet the increased demand. This expansion has occurred through a number of methods of strategic development including mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances; indeed, large UK energy providers such as Eon are currently advertising for legal practitioners with experience of mergers and acquisitions to enable them to exploit this method of development. Of the big 6 energy providers within the UK, only two are still UK owned, whilst Iberdrola (Spain), RWE npower (Germany), Eon (Germany) and EDF (France), entered the UK energy market through series of mergers and acquisitions. However, with the issues of depleting resources of fossil fuels, organisations have used these approaches to develop the next generation of power creation. NuGen, a joint venture between Iberdrola and GDF-Suez has been joined by Japanese company Toshiba, who have bought a controlling stake in the consortium, looking at the next generation of nuclear power in the UK. In 2006, Toshiba also acquired Westinghouse Nuclear, a US firm providing world leading products for boiling water reactors. A number of the UK big 6 energy firms are working in partnership with DONG Energy and Siemens Project Ventures to develop off and onshore wind farms in and around the UK.
The development of new technologies within energy extraction, creation and distribution are some of the biggest challenges faced by organisations today. It is argued that the creation and management of knowledge is the key to developing strategies which lead to sustained competitive advantage. Indeed, the strategic development methods already mentioned can help organisations access knowledge. Like other industries, the energy industry relies on knowledge to enhance strategies. Schlumberger, one of the worlds largest gas exploration, extraction and infrastructure organisations believe that knowledge is central to the organisations strategy and operations, be that scientific, technical or management knowledge. As such, Schlumberger utilise information technology, networks and communities of practice to facilitate knowledge sharing and innovation across all its activities. All of the big 6 energy suppliers in the UK employ knowledge managers within their businesses with Iberdola stating that intellectual capital is the basic foundation for the creation and protection of a companies value. In 2008 they developed a Knowledge Management Policy, outlining how knowledge of individuals and groups is captured and utilised in line with the competences and requirements to assist the development of company core strategy. EDF, in its nuclear generation plants, use knowledge sharing and communities of practice to ensure safety is top of its strategic agenda, to avoid disasters such as recently Fukushima in Japan and global networks such as UN Energy Knowledge Network and the IAEA encourage knowledge sharing to help countries and communities develop energy strategies.
The scale and activities of the global energy industry mean that they potentially have a negative impact on the societies and environments in which they operate. This is perhaps true of the energy industry more than any other. The National Audit Office stated in 2013 that UK gas and electricity consumers can expect to see continued price rises above the rate of inflation for a further 17 years to renew ageing infrastructure, as a result of underinvestment in the sector in the past. However, these price rises have led to the media accusing energy companies of profiteering, claims of customers in ‘fuel poverty, politicians calling for a windfall tax on energy suppliers or promises of a price rise freeze by the Labour party. It is the infrastructure which perhaps raises most concerns for the public, with even the alternatives being proposed not being without critics. NuGen believe that nuclear energy is the only low carbon alternative for UK energy generation, although safety and waste are two main concerns. Likewise, the exploration and extraction of shale gas through the process of fracking has been proposed as a solution in the UK. British Geological Survey estimated that there may be as much as 1300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas in the north of England, 10% of which may be recoverable. The UK currently consumes around 3 trillion cubic feet of gas a year. Supporters argue that it would provide a cheap source of gas for the UK with consumers benefitting from low prices, whilst opponents fear this approach would be an ecological nightmare. Renewable solutions are seen to be the most environmentally friendly, low carbon alternatives to current and proposed methods of energy generation. RWE npower, Centrica and Eon are examples of the big 6 energy companies in the UK investing in renewable energy initiatives; looking at on and off shore wind farms, hydro power and biomass, with Eon claiming to have spent £9 billion on renewable energy projects since 2007. However, these solutions are still questioned due to the impact they may have on the environment.

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