Complex Fraud, Commercial Crime and Regulatory Litigation

7 Bedford Row is one of the United Kingdom's leading sets specialising in complex criminal and civil fraud. Recommended by both the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners, we are praised as "providing a fine service across the board for fraud.". Members of the Complex Fraud team prosecute and defend at the highest level and the team offers services in a range of specialisations relevant to commercial crime and regulatory litigation as well as civil fraud.

Strength in depth and a multi-disciplinary team with a range of specialist skills allows us to deal, in-house, with all aspects of a case. Where appropriate we are able to accept direct instruction from professional or lay clients. We undertake a broad range of work advising from the investigatory stage and appearing for the prosecution and defence in a variety of courts and tribunals. When necessary we are able to build a team designed to meet the particular challenges of specific complex cases.

Members of the team are involved in investigations – both criminal and regulatory - initiated by government agencies such as the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the Financial Services Authority and the Office of Fair Trading. We also advise and appear in cases brought by prosecutors including the Serious Fraud Office, the Financial Services Authority, the Serious Organised Crime Agency and CPS Central Casework Directorate. As well as working with these agencies we are instructed by leading solicitors' firms in this field.

Members of our team bring diverse skills and many years of experience, including in some of today’s most topical and leading cases, to dealing with the criminal and civil courts and with regulatory bodies both here in the UK, as well as in the USA and in other sovereign states. A group within the team deals with extradition matters.

Our barristers have been selected by many leading lawyers and law firms in the UK and from overseas to bring their expertise to support corporate client needs in times of crisis.  We are leaders in this field and clients look to us for urgent practical guidance when the most difficult issues arise and where the most careful analysis of risk and right action are demanded.

Our work has an important and growing international dimension and we advise and appear in a number of foreign jurisdictions. We have also been used as examiners for the taking of evidence in foreign proceedings. Our clients include the United States Department of Justice, the State of California and the Attorneys General of a number of the United Kingdom’s low tax jurisdictions.

Organised to take Public Access instructions, we can advise corporate and professional clients directly.