The first conviction of a person involved in the Libor rate rigging scandal following an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is a "major positive development" for the agency and will help in its bid to remain independent from other crime agencies, senior lawyers believe.

At Southwark Crown Court yesterday former City trader Tom Hayes was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his part in rigging the Libor interest rate.

His conviction follows a tough few years for the SFO marked by serial errors, failed prosecutions and critical independent reports, culminating in a combined payment of damages and costs totalling £7.5m to billionaire property developers the Tchenguiz brothers in July last year.

Speaking to Legal Week, Vivian Robinson QC, partner at McGuire Woods and former general counsel at the SFO between 2009 and 2011, said: "It means a huge amount to the SFO and it's a major positive development which you can only believe that they will regard favourably."

Graham More, consultant at Herbert Smith Freehills and former assistant director of the SFO, added: "When this whole scandal broke a lot of people, including a lot of the defence bar, thought that the SFO would not be able to get any conviction partly because they didn't see how anyone could manipulate the market because there were so many people involved. I think that the SFO have confounded initial scepticism about how to prosecute something like this."

It has previously been reported that home secretary Theresa May has been keen to shut down the SFO and transfer its functions into the National Crime Agency.

But Robinson said that yesterday's conviction would help efforts to save the SFO from such a fate.

He says: "I have always said that the idea that splitting the function of the SFO is a very bad idea indeed and I hope that anybody that takes a different view will look upon this case as an example that the SFO should stay as it is."

Another former SFO lawyer says: "If it had gone the other way it would have been problematic."

But More is dismissive of the notion that the SFO was ever under threat. "There have always been rumours like [rolling it into another agency]," he says. "This conviction will help to stave off anything like that. It would be madness to roll it into another agency, if you take on difficult cases like these you are bound to lose a few."

Another former SFO lawyer adds that the conviction is an example of the SFO's ability to explain complex trading cases to a jury to get a conviction. They said: "It's an art taking something quite complicated and making it quite simple."

Robinson said that the result would "send out a very clear message" to banks and other institutions that fraudsters would be handed tough sentences by the judiciary. "The banking sector knows how careful it needs to be now," he said.

Several white collar crime lawyers believe the case will help further the expansion of the white collar crime market, particularly the demand for compliance work from large corporate clients.

However others argue there were already very powerful motivators for companies to enlist advisers to help with compliance work so the judgement would not have a significant effect on the market.

News of the conviction comes after SFO director David Green spoke to Legal Week about the organisation's turnaround and warned companies it would not back away from those who are not complying.