20 Years of the Companies Act 2006: Reform, Reality and the Road Ahead

Enacted after years of consultation, the Companies Act 2006 represented the most ambitious overhaul of UK company law in a generation — a landmark piece of legislation running to over 1,300 sections, designed to modernise, simplify and future-proof UK company law. Two decades later, its codification of directors’ duties, shareholder remedies and corporate governance framework sits at the heart of commercial practice.
 
But has the Act delivered?  Has codification materially altered the content or enforcement of directors’ duties? Has the statutory derivative claim procedure enhanced accountability or simply reframed existing litigation strategies? How has the Act interacted with arbitration clauses, cross-border shareholder disputes and London’s role as a leading forum for international dispute resolution?
 
Join Cleary Gottlieb and Erskine Chambers for a panel discussion to examine the ambitions that drove the Act’s creation, assess where reform has succeeded and where questions remain unresolved, and consider how the landscape has shifted through subsequent legislation, evolving case law, and the seismic changes wrought by Brexit and the ESG agenda. We also look ahead — asking whether the Act, as amended and interpreted over two decades, remains fit for purpose, and what the next chapter of UK company law might look like.