WilmerHale currently authors the Fraud and Corporate Crime section of The In-House Lawyer magazine. For more information and articles from this author click here.

WilmerHale currently authors the Fraud and Corporate Crime section of The In-House Lawyer magazine. For more information and articles from this author click here.

The start of a dawn raid is often the first time a company or individual learns that they are the subject of an investigation. Knowing what to do during the first minutes of a dawn raid is vital. Ensuring that a company’s receptionist, employees and senior management all know what role they have to play in effectively managing the arrival of investigators at the company’s front door and the subsequent search is essential. Attempting to formulate such a plan of action once the raid has begun is not practical and therefore the key to handling a dawn raid is preparation and detailed planning. 


WilmerHale currently authors the Fraud and Corporate Crime section of The In-House Lawyer magazine. For more information and articles from this author click here.

Following the recent Supreme Court decision in R (on the application of Prudential plc) [2013], confirming that legal advice privilege does not attach to accountants or anyone else outside the legal profession, this seems an appropriate time to revisit the application of the principles of privilege within the context of internal investigations. We examine in this article the key issues relating to privilege that thoes conducting internal investigations should be aware of, predominantly in England and Wales, but also, where applicable, from a US and European law perspective.

WilmerHale currently authors the Fraud and Corporate Crime section of The In-House Lawyer magazine. For more information and articles from this author click here.

In our November article, ‘Establishing the criminal liability of corporations', we looked at how liability for criminal offences can attach to corporations, where the commission of the offence is attributable to someone who was at the material time the ‘directing mind and will' of the company.¹ This article looks at the related issue of how criminal liability can attach to individual directors and senior officers as a result of actions taken by those whom they manage.


WilmerHale currently authors the Fraud and Corporate Crime section of The In-House Lawyer magazine. For more information and articles from this author click here.

There can surely be few enterprises carrying on a business in the UK who remain unaware of the provisions of the UK Bribery Act 2010 (the Bribery Act). That such enterprises may be prosecuted in the UK courts for their failure to prevent bribery committed on their behalf, however far flung the location, has been the hot legal topic for at least the last 18 months.


WilmerHale currently authors the Fraud and Corporate Crime section of The In-House Lawyer magazine. For more information and articles from this author click here.

In the government’s recent 
consultation on the introduction of 
deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs), one of the reasons given in favour of them was that DPAs would assist with the difficulties of establishing the necessary mens rea of many corporate criminal offences.1 The logic of this is questionable, but, given the current focus on DPAs as a potential enforcement tool, it is worth exploring why corporations are so difficult to prosecute under the current law, and the possible alternatives. 


WilmerHale currently authors the Fraud and Corporate Crime section of The In-House Lawyer magazine. For more information and articles from this author click here.

The beginning of any kind of internal investigation is a fraught time for in-house lawyers. Whether the investigation has 
been triggered by suspected corrupt conduct, accounting irregularities or the inklings of attention from a prosecutor, things usually need to happen fast and thinking time can be scarce. 

When David Green QC took over from Richard Alderman as director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in April this year, he inherited an organisation in crisis. Still reeling from budget cuts and speculation over its future in 2011, the SFO was fast heading for an embarrassing defeat in one of its most highly publicised cases – its criminal investigation into Vincent Tchenguiz, a high-profile businessman and one of several individuals arrested in a blaze of publicity in March last year in relation to the collapse of Kaupthing Bank hf. 


After years of debate, on 14 June 2012 and in its last days of office, the Legislative Council finally enacted Hong Kong’s first cross- sector competition law.

The Personal Data (Privacy) Amendment Ordinance (the "Amendment Ordinance") was passed on 27 June 2012.