You are here:

• home
• services
• environment
• reach

REACH

The challenges faced by our clients

For those working in the chemical industry, regulation and control requires ever-increasing time and resource. With rising fuel and raw material prices, and complex new regulations such as REACH to comply with, it is even more important to ensure your business is managing risk in a cost-effective way.

Eversheds ran its first REACH conference back in June 2003 where the main speaker was Robert Donkers, Deputy Head of Chemicals Unit, DG Environment, attendees included DuPont, Ineos, Huntsman, Acordis and the Nickel Institute. We are regular speakers at both national and international conferences and have spoken at events run or sponsored by Akzo Nobel, CIA, RAPRA and ENDS. We have published REACH articles in Metro Corporate Counsel (US in-house lawyer publication) ChemManager, and EuropeWorkplace Law Network.

Eversheds was recently involved in and helped finalise CEFIC's standard form pre-consortium and consortium agreements and we are active members of ChemWatch enabling us to track legislative and market trends in this sector. We were recently used by ChemWatch to advertise and highlight our membership to encourage the recruitment of new members into this sector. We are members of the UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Law group.

Eversheds is one of the few law firms recognised by the legal press for their expertise in the provision of REACH legal services:

"This integrated team continues to be strong in both contentious and non-contentious matters, and has earned praise from its peers for its regulatory expertise - especially in connection with the REACH regulations."
Chambers & Partners Guide to the UK Legal Profession 2008

We have acted for trade bodies such as the International Manganese Institute and are currently finalising their consortium documentation and consultancy appointments with specialist chemical testing labs. We have also been working with a chemicals trade association to act as consortium legal advisors in respect of a range of substances.

Examples of some of our more recent REACH work:

• Advising a Japanese metals manufacturer on the interpretation of various REACH regulatory requirements and the appointment of an Only Representative.
• Advising a trade association representing the metals sector on the formation of a REACH consortium and putting in place consultancy documentation.
• Advising a chemicals sector trade association on the contractual appointment of partners to assist in the preparation of technical data for dossier submission.
• Advising an international chemicals company on all their REACH related queries.
• Advising a multi-national chemical manufacturer on modifications to their contractual documentation associated with their supply chain and creating precedent documents to help them in negotiations with their customers and suppliers.
• Advising a large European chemical company on the legal implications under REACH of Toll manufacturing and modifying their agreements to ensure REACH compliance.
• Helping a US chemicals manufacturer create a new legal entity to take on their REACH importer obligations.
• Advising a chemicals sector client in the negotiation of consortium documentation and producing precedent clauses to assist in the negotiation of the documentation.
• Advising a test laboratory on the legal implications of becoming an Only Representative and the potential implications and liabilities including those under competition law and product liability.
• Sitting on the REACH implementation team for a large multi-jurisdictional chemical company to provide legal guidance on the introduction of structures and procedures to ensure legal compliance across all their business units.
• Providing legal counsel to a US manufacturer's REACH steering group and addressing specific business related REACH queries.
• Providing advice and due diligence reporting to various major corporates on REACH compliance during the course of sale and purchase transactions.
• Inputting into the consultation process for CEFIC's consortium documentation.