From sports disputes to increased regulatory activity, Ben Wheway looks back at the briefings and statistics making headlines in Legal Week Law over the past quarter

Faith, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, is taking the first step before you can see the staircase – a short and sweet definition of a term which was discussed at much greater length this summer due to a closely watched case involving Manchester United-branded merchandise.

Yam Seng v International Trade Corporation [2013], which centred around a dispute over a contract to distribute Man Utd products in territories in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Australasia, attracted much attention due to the question of 'good faith' in the context of commercial contracts – a subject which had not to date been considered in depth in the English courts.

As such, two briefings on the subject featured among the most-downloaded on Legal Week Law during the third quarter of 2013, with Macfarlanes' 'Can a duty to perform a contract in good faith be implied into a contract?' performing strongly alongside Travers Smith's broader look at the issue, 'Good faith – what does it mean?', which garnered an impressive 27 reader recommendations.

luis-suarez-free-c-mooinblack-shutterstock-webFootball was also a central factor in another of the quarter's most popular downloads – Shoosmiths' look into the Luis Suarez (pictured) contract dispute, which asked the question 'Can oral agreements vary terms of a written contract?'

The Liverpool striker's headline-making dispute with his club took contract law to the back pages of every national newspaper this August as the Uruguayan attempted to push through a multimillion-pound transfer to Premier League rivals Arsenal.

Shoosmiths' timely briefing on the subject addressed an issue that transcended law for many readers, and unsurprisingly proved extremely popular.

The subject of contracts can always be relied upon to attract high numbers of downloads on Legal Week Law, and another to perform well this quarter was Linklaters' look at confidentiality clauses in its briefing 'Contractual duties of confidence are mainly… contractual'.

The article, which also featured a sporting element in the case of Force India v Aerolab [2013], proved to be the third-most downloaded over the three-month period, offering a succinct summary of the issues in the dispute between the Force India Formula One racing team and aerodynamics company Aerolab.

Other briefings to rank among the quarter's top ten downloads included Shoosmiths' look at capacity and identity in contracts, 'Who do you think you are?'; Macfarlanes' report on Newbury v Sun Microsystems [2013], a case which brought into stark focus the crucial importance of the three-word term "subject to contract"; and Weil Gotshal & Manges' summary of the Barclay brothers' hotels dispute, which saw the Court of Appeal revisit the much discussed issue of implied terms.

Aside from topical crowd-pleasers on sports disputes and headline-making litigation, a number of briefings proved highly successful this summer by taking potentially complex issues and distilling them down to the key points of importance. 

Among them, Pinsent Masons' briefing on the importance of investigations, 'Don't make a drama out of a crisis', addressed the recent rise in enforcement and regulatory activity with a clearly written overview of the issues at hand which proved popular among in-house counsel looking for clarity.

Similarly, Nabarro's intellectual property briefing 'A guide to protecting your assets' shows that when it comes to the crunch, lawyers can even restrict themselves to just one side of A4. The firm's handy one-page overview of trademarks, copyright, patents and registered designs was succinct, neatly presented and instantly accessible.

But as the readership figures show, lawyers still place great stock in comprehensiveness, and Baker & McKenzie's inaugural edition of Dispute Resolution Insights, a 64-page guide to commercial litigation, proved to be the quarter's sixth most popular download. 

The report, which pulled together articles from some of the firm's top London litigators, covered a range of issues from pricing models to the Jackson reforms and nuisance claims to e-disclosure, with future editions set to be a must-read for both City disputes lawyers and their clients.

And the briefing which tops this quarter's rankings – and indeed, the year to date – is Allen & Overy's five-page guide to understanding indemnities. The magic circle firm's report, which comprises frequently asked questions, drafting tips and looks at how English courts have interpreted indemnities over the years, has been downloaded by a massive 1,334 registrants in the three months since it was added to the site – an impressive result unlikely to be bettered any time soon.