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International Edition

Partnership culture leaves firms vulnerable to a few bad apples

If proof was needed that old-fashioned partnership culture is alive and well in the City despite waves of partner culls and de-equitisations, then look no further than the case of Hogan Lovells' litigator Christopher Grierson and his alleged £1m expenses scam. Previously best known for working on the epic Bank of England/BCCI creditors dispute, his name will now forever be linked in legal circles with the shocking achievement of wrongfully claiming more than £1m in expenses over a four-year period, according to his former firm.
4 minute read

International Edition

White collar crime lawyers on alert as SFO break-up threat recedes

White collar crime advisers are scrambling to divine the direction of corporate crime policy amid mounting expectations that the Government will abandon controversial plans to break up the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). The coalition Government had planned to split the SFO's prosecution division from its investigation function - a move strongly opposed by the agency and many white collar crime specialists.
3 minute read

International Edition

Sullivan signs up Simmons white collar crime partner for City base

Sullivan & Cromwell has hired Simmons & Simmons white collar crime partner Louise Delahunty as a European counsel in the London office. Delahunty will join the US firm on 20 June in its criminal defense and investigations group.
2 minute read

International Edition

Ex-Ropes & Gray associate disbarred after Rajaratnam insider trading verdict

Former Ropes & Gray associate Arthur Cutillo has been disbarred in New York a day after a Manhattan federal jury convicted billionaire Raj Rajaratnam on all counts related to a wide-ranging insider trading probe, reports The Am Law Daily. A five-member panel of the New York State Appellate Division, First Department on Thursday (12 May) issued its ruling disbarring Cutillo, who was arrested in November 2009 and accused of passing along tips on confidential deals he worked on at the firm.
2 minute read

International Edition

Hare Court silk appointed to lead World Cup bribery probe

The Football Association (FA) has appointed James Dingemans QC of 3 Hare Court to investigate allegations of misconduct by FIFA officials surrounding England's 2018 failed World Cup bid. Dingemans was appointed on Thursday (12 May) to review claims made by former FA chairman Lord Triesman to a Parliamentary select committee this week relating to allegations that four FIFA officials had sought "bribes" to back England's bid.
2 minute read

International Edition

Hedge fund chief Rajaratnam found guilty on all counts in insider trading case

Hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam has been found guilty of 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy by a federal jury in Manhattan, writes The American Lawyer.The verdict against the founder of the Galleon Group was delivered yesterday (11 May) after six days of deliberations that followed a nine-week trial on insider trading charges
3 minute read

International Edition

US firm seals hire of Serious Fraud Office GC for London office

McGuireWoods has boosted its white collar crime practice in London with the hire of Serious Fraud Office (SFO) general counsel Vivian Robinson QC. Robinson will join the US firm's London office later this summer as a partner in the government, regulatory and criminal investigations practice, after serving a three-month notice period at the SFO.
2 minute read

International Edition

War on Wimbledon – the much-derided Bribery Act is a resounding success

You know you're on dodgy territory when journalists and lobbying groups start to claim a piece of legislation is badly drafted. Unless you're a trained lawyer - and one with a specialism in the area at that - it's pretty difficult to tell if statute is poorly written. Of course, as can been seen from this week's analysis, this didn't stop a storm of criticism hitting the Bribery Act, which must now surely rank as the most politically-charged piece of legislation to impact on corporates since the Human Rights Act of 1998. In part, the nature of these attacks was due to the content of the Act. Supporting bribery is a hard public position to adopt - which forced opponents of the Act to get into technical arguments regarding supposed deficiencies in drafting.
3 minute read

International Edition

Kickbacks – does the Bribery Act deserve to be mired in controversy?

"Talk of golf days being banned and arrests at Wimbledon – that was all hype," says Barry Vitou, Pinsent Masons partner and co-author of thebriberyact.com, discussing the much-touted anti-corruption legislation that will finally come into effect later this summer. And the implementation of the Bribery Act has certainly been noticed; arguably not since the Human Rights Act 1998 has a piece of primary legislation with wide implications for companies attracted such sustained political controversy. In the wake of a fierce lobbying campaign from business groups claiming, in one case, that the Act would be like equivalent US legislation "on acid" – leading to extreme claims that even basic corporate hospitality would be banned under the legislation – the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced in January that the Act's implementation would be delayed from its target of April 2011.
26 minute read

International Edition

US associate faces charges for using law firm data for insider trading

A former M&A lawyer has been charged by US prosecutors for an alleged insider trading scheme which involved obtaining information from three leading corporate law firms, writes The Am Law Daily. Matthew Kluger, a former associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Cravath Swaine & Moore and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, has been charged by federal prosecutors in connection with an alleged scheme to trade on inside information. The scheme is alleged to have netted Kluger and a fellow defendant $32m (£19.7m) over more than a decade.
4 minute read

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