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T: +44 (0) 20 7242 3555   |   E: clerks@7br.co.uk

Nicholas has extensive experience with complex fraud litigation, financial services and regulatory matters, serious crimes including drug, property, political and violent crimes, and public, constitutional & human rights law on both sides of the Atlantic. His practice has included regulatory litigation against the Financial Services Authority in the UK and the Securities & Exchange Commission in the United States, international corruption cases under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, defence of individuals, corporations and government agencies accused of environmental crimes including unlawful dumping and dredging, criminal and civil forfeiture of real and personal property, defence of individuals accused of insider trading, and corporate/local government internal investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices and Clean Water Acts. He also has experience with public law litigation on behalf of individual, corporate and government clients in a variety of fields, including financial services regulation and land use planning.

Nicholas joined 7 Bedford Row upon his return to the United Kingdom in 2009, after an extensive period of practice in the United States.

Experience

Nicholas has extensive advisory and advocacy experience both in the UK and in the United States, and has regularly appeared in courtrooms in complex, contested cases in both jurisdictions. 

In the United States, he has appeared in state and federal courts in a variety of complex criminal, regulatory and constitutional matters, including securities fraud and insider trading, tax fraud, political crimes, serious theft and assault matters, criminal forfeiture of assets, and land-use planning.  He also has extensive appellate experience in the United States, having briefed and argued cases before the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Oregon and New Mexico Courts of Appeal and Supreme Courts. 

In the UK, Nicholas undertakes regulatory and financial services litigation at the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the Financial Services Authority, the Financial Services & Markets Tribunal, and the High Court.  He is regularly instructed to appear in Crown Courts around the UK in jury trials, PCMH and other pre-trial hearings, and in Newton, sentencing and confiscation hearings in a variety of serious criminal matters including fraud, domestic assault, money laundering, drug and burglary matters.  Nicholas has successfully appealed excessive sentences before the Court of Appeals.  He is also regularly instructed by both claimants and defendants, including local authorities and other public agencies, to appear in County Courts around the UK in a variety of civil proceedings, including contested fast track trial and disposal hearings.  Nicholas has also represented clients before the Parole Board, and in 2010 is expanding his tribunal practice to include cases before the Employment Tribunal. 

Key Cases
  • FSA v. W (a firm); FSA v. G (a firm): representation of several small-cap stockbroking corporations before the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the Financial Services Authority and the Financial Services & Markets Tribunal.  Nicholas has also represented regulated entities in the High Court in judicial review proceedings against the FSA.
  • R. v. Robinson [2010]: Court of Appeals (Pitchford LJ, Rafferty J and HHJ Goldstone QC).  Secured 6-month reduction in sentence for client accused of car ringing offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, in circumstances where the sentencing judge adopted too high a starting point in applying older car-ringing sentencing authorities involving far more complex ringing operations to the facts of this case.
  • R. v. Button [2010]: Court of Appeals (Pitchford LJ, Owen J. and the Recorder of London).  Secured reduction in sentence for second domestic burglary from 30 months to 18 months, in circumstances where the sentencing judge had wrongly determined that a burglary was committed in breach of trust.
  • R. v. Roque [2009]: acted for the defence in a 4-day jury trial involving allegations of serious domestic assault by husband against wife at a nightclub in Leicester.  Defendant argued self-defence.  Verdict of Not Guilty returned in under two hours.   
  • United States v. Lee [2007]: Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  Argued criminal forfeiture of real property belonging to a Vietnamese-American husband failed to properly account for the customary interests of his wife.
  • United States v. Wooh [2007]: Federal Ninth Circuit (District of Oregon).  Whistleblower case involving allegations of Foreign Corrupt Practice Act violations in the international scrap steel shipping industry.
  • State of Oregon v. Johnson [2007]: Novel constitutional challenge to application of mandatory minimum sentencing provisions to mentally disabled client.
  • United States v. Kornman [2007]: Federal Fifth Circuit (Northern District of Texas).  Complex motions to suppress illegally obtained evidence in securities fraud/insider trading prosecution.
  • State of Oregon v. Moyer, Tune & Sturgeon [2006]: Oregon Court of Appeals.  Constitutional challenge, on free speech grounds, to unlawful charging instrument criminalising, inter alia, provision of anonymous donations to political candidates.
  • United States v. Stringer [2006-2008]: Federal Ninth Circuit (District of Oregon).  Participated in landmark case involving the dismissal of an indictment against CEO due to improper, secret collusion between the Securities & Exchange Commission and the United States Attorney's Office.
  • Just v. City of Lebanon [2004]: Oregon Supreme Court.  Amicus brief concerning extent of citizen involvement/standing in Oregon’s land use planning system. 
  • Albuquerque Commons Partnership v. City of Albuquerque [2003-2008]: New Mexico Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.  Amicus briefs in landmark case concerning importance of urban master plans in New Mexico’s land use planning system.
  • Utsey v. Coos County [2003]: Oregon Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.  Amicus brief concerning extent of citizen involvement/standing in Oregon’s land use planning system.    

 

Memberships

  • 1999, Bar of England and Wales
  • 2003, State Bar of the State of Oregon
  • 2006, Federal District Court, District of Oregon
  • 2007, Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • 2008, Passed New York State Bar Examination. Membership of the New York State Bar TBC.
  • Young Fraud Lawyers Association
  • Lawyers for Liberty

Qualifications

  • LLB Hons (University College, London) First Class, 1998
  • Gray's Inn Junior Scholar, 1998
  • British Academy Scholar, 1999
  • BCL (Pembroke College, Oxford) 2000

Publications

  • Contributor to Advertising Law and Regulation (Tottel, 2nd Ed. 2010); specifically Chapter 22: Regulation of Financial Services Advertising.
  • Sources of ‘Public Use’ Requirements?” 27 Zoning & Planning L. Rep 1.  Article cited to the United States Supreme Court in Kelo v. City of New London, one of the most significant land use planning decisions in modern Supreme Court history.
  • “Legislative vs. Quasi Judicial – Deference or Defense?” 27 Zoning & Planning L. Rep 20. 
  • “Making It Up – Original Intent and Federal Takings Jurisprudence” The Urban Lawyer, Vol. 35, No. 2, 203.
  • “How Useful is Rawls’ Theory of Justice? Does It Help Us to Avoid Unjust Systems?” [1998] UCL Jurisprudence Review.

Pro Bono Work

Nicholas has undertaken pro bono work for the American Civil Liberties Union (advice regarding a constitutional challenge to an Oregon Law criminalising the provision of so-called "sexually explicit" material to minors), Thousand Friends of Oregon (amicus briefs to the Oregon Court of Appeals and Supreme Courts arguing for greater citizen involvement in the land use planning process), the American Planning Association (amicus briefs to the Oregon and New Mexico Courts of Appeal and Supreme Courts arguing for greater prominence for urban master plans) and the League of Conservation Voters (advocacy on a wide variety of economic, environmental, social and political topics for the non-partisan environmental group's 2004 presidential campaign, in support of John Kerry). 

 

Directory Quotes

Listed as a "rising star" in the 2008 edition of Superlawyers

 

Contact Nicholas Cropp

Phone: +44 (0) 20 7242 3555
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7242 2511
Email: clerks@7br.co.uk