Corporate Defence & Compliance

Proactive advice, reactive response. Our skilled corporate defence experts support you and your business.

In this section

Our corporate defence and compliance lawyers are highly skilled and have a wealth of experience, having defended in all aspects of business and financial crime.

In recent years, we’ve seen a political agenda that’s focused on combatting financial crime and irregularity. This legislative shift has been designed to hold corporate entities to account for the criminal behaviour of senior management functions and those associated with them.

Businesses and individuals are now more likely to face scrutiny and investigation than ever before.

We advocate the ethos that ‘prevention is better than cure’ and have been instructed to advise corporates on the strength of their existing compliance regimes, as well as adopting suitably risk-assessed policies to protect against prosecution.

Meet the team

Our approach to corporate defence and compliance

Our team understands the difficulties and pressures that increased scrutiny can present — particularly in an ever-evolving compliance landscape, where keeping up to date with the most recent changes in legislation can be challenging.

It’s led by Dan Stowers — a Partner recognised by The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners who, over two decades in practice, has acted in the full range of criminal and regulatory investigations and prosecutions including those brought by the Serious Fraud Office, Financial Conduct Authority, CPS, HMRC and other regulators.

Having an accessible team of lawyers — able to provide the right advice at the right stage — is key to protecting you and your business. Whether this is taking a proactive approach to advising on the efficacy of existing compliance regimes and supporting the implementation of anti-financial crime policies or advising during the reactive phase in the course of an investigation or prosecution, our experts are on-hand to assist.

Contact our experts

Experts in complex regulatory and criminal prosecutions

We also recognise that things can occasionally go wrong. Where an investigation is inevitable, our highly skilled team will support you throughout every step of the process.

Our lawyers have acted in some of the country’s largest and most complex prosecutions in England and Wales, including fraud, deferred prosecution agreements, bribery, money laundering, tax evasion and more. This means that we’re well-equipped to advise and represent clients that are faced with all manner of financial crime and related corporate crime offences.

We understand that matters affecting your business often involve nuanced issues and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

Our corporate defence and compliance team comprises highly skilled individuals who’ve developed specific expertise in the area of crime and compliance. We work collaboratively to strengthen the quality of our service. We’re also able to draw on the expertise of lawyers from a number of disciplines to support and react to issues affecting your business, including specialists from commercial litigation, tax and employment.

Read now

A guide to corporate criminal liability in England and Wales

Find out what your company needs to know about the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and how to implement an effective compliance programme.

Here, Dan Stowers and Lucy Ryczany present a guide to corporate criminal liability, including the general principles, issues prosecuting companies, the identification doctrine, the failure to prevent offences and what you need to do to ensure compliance.

“Dan Stowers has over 20 years’ experience, much of which related to serious and complex fraud cases. He is friendly and approachable to clients, but tenacious with his opponents. Having worked with Dan, he has consistently proved to be a very strategic thinker with an incredible eye for detail. He is particularly effective during investigations and has managed to stop criminal investigations before his client has been charged.”

The Legal 500, 2021

“Dan Stowers is clearly in control of his cases. He has the exceptional ability of both being able to have a well-reasoned overview of a case as well as having all the details at his fingertips. This means that you feel that he is truly providing the best representation for his client.”

The Legal 500, 2020

“Dan Stowers is without doubt the most dynamic lawyer in his field, understanding the issues immediately and how to address them.”

The Legal 500, 2020

“[Dan Stowers is] highly experienced in all aspects of fraud work and is head and shoulders above his peers… a leader in the field.”

The Legal 500, 2012