The pandemic has left parties to long-term contracts in arrangements that are no longer commercially viable.

Some have been able to agree on revised terms with their counterparties relatively quickly and easily. For others, the process has been more formal and prolonged, and involved considering the contract-renegotiation law of the applicable jurisdiction.

In this second podcast in our ‘Rethinking the supply chain’ series, Kate Gough, Moritz Becker and Tim Harkness from our dispute resolution practice discuss the legal framework for renegotiating contracts under the laws of England and Wales, Germany and the US, and the common mis-steps that negotiators make.   

Supply-chain risk has been rising up the boardroom agenda in recent years, with trade wars driving moves to ‘reshore’ production and the development of digital technologies such as AI enabling huge efficiency gains through process optimisation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many of these challenges even more to the fore and led companies to reconsider their approach to supply chain management. Rafique Bachour, Tim Wilkins and Theresa Ehlen discuss these challenges in particular around sustainability and digitisation.