Clifford Chance litigation partner Simon Davis has been appointed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to carry out a review of its investigation into the insurance industry.

The independent inquiry is in response to concerns about how the FCA handled an investigation into certain long term life assurance products sold in the UK between the 1970s and 2000, details of which were leaked to a journalist. The review was included in the FCA's Business Plan, published last week.

Davis – who has been a partner at CC since 1994 – will prepare a final report "as quickly as is reasonably possible". The inquiry will be overseen by a committee of the non-executive directors of the FCA's Board chaired by John Griffith-Jones.

In November last year CC was drafted in to conduct an independent review  into the lending practices at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) after the bank's global restructuring group was accused of mistreating the bank's customers in a report by entrepreneur Lawrence Tomlinson.

The deadline for the report's publication had initially been set for 31 January, but has since been extended to later in the spring.

Legal Week understands several businesses which passed on information to Tomlinson have declined to forward evidence to CC, having previously encountered the firm as an adviser to the bank in restructuring litigation.

Others are also understood to have been nervous about forwarding commercially sensitive information to the magic circle firm, given its history of advising the bank.

Owing to the size of the investigation, CC's lead lawyers – regulatory partners Carlos Conceicao and Kelwin Nicholls – have drafted in additional support from lawyers at TLT Solicitors and DMH Stallard.