Criminal compliance and regulatory

Regulatory requirements are increasing, both nationally and internationally, and understanding and implementing the plethora of guidance and regulations relevant to running your organisation is daunting. At the same time, civil and criminal enforcement and recovery powers are extensive with recent significant increases in financial penalties and sentences handed down by the courts. Failure to comply can be costly and severely damaging to your brand, reputation and sales. It could lead to dawn raids, unexpected visits from the Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency, Trading Standards and ultimately the Police as part of time-consuming regulatory investigations or prosecutions. Many of the sanctions for breaches of regulatory offences are criminal or quasi-criminal with company directors and officers facing personal liability. We help you navigate the relevant regulatory framework, provide thorough, balanced and pragmatic advice on regulatory risk management as well as being available to you 24 hours a day in the event of incidents, accidents or unannounced visits by the regulators.

Our expert regulatory team, which includes a number of criminal lawyers, undertakes both defence and prosecution giving us a unique understanding and ability to negotiate for clients involved in an investigations and enforcement action. We work closely with our civil litigation colleagues who advise on any commercial disputes or civil claims for compensation that often follow a regulatory investigation.

What we do

• Our clients – international public limited companies, national blue chip and public sector organisations, government departments and local authorities, school and hospital trusts, insurers, small and medium sized enterprises, company directors and officers of public sector organisations.
• Our experience – we advise and represent private and public sector bodies across a wide range of disciplines and undertakings including retail, food and drink, construction, health, education, insurance, financial services, pharmaceuticals, automotive and logistics, security, construction and manufacturing.
• Our practice – we operate in a broad range of practice areas including health and safety, fire safety, environmental, trading standards, financial crime including fraud, bribery, corruption, HMRC and sanctions, counter fraud, civil recoveries and intelligence, CQC registration and investigations, planning enforcement, food safety/labelling and public or statutory inquiries.
• Specialists in investigations and complex regulations – we advise across the full spectrum of investigation and prosecution dealing with police and regulator requests for disclosure, appeals against statutory notices, internal investigations (legal privilege), interviews under caution and subsequent representation before the before the criminal courts.
• Broad team with decades of experience – solicitor advocates, barristers and experienced criminal and regulatory solicitors based in Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester, London and Exeter, but with a national practice covering the whole of the UK and internationally. The team is unusual in that solicitors have undertaken both prosecution and defence work in the regulatory area, which gives them a unique understanding and ability to negotiate for their clients when involved in investigations and prosecutions.
• Strategic approach – we work shoulder to shoulder with our clients, visiting clients’ premises to ensure we truly understand the organisation we represent. Taking time with close relatives or business partners so that key people feel involved and supported. Most importantly, protecting their interests in the unfamiliar territory of police stations, court rooms and inquests.
• Advice on policies, procedures and process – beyond litigation, our team assists clients in respect of new legislation and regulations advising upon the principles around policies and procedures to meet legal requirements as well as delivering training at board and senior management level. The team also assist corporate colleagues in respect of due diligence during commercial transactions.