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NLJ this week: SFO disasters & how to fix them

01 September 2023
Issue: 8038 / Categories: Legal News , Fraud , Criminal , Disclosure
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The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has faced some serious stumbling blocks in its time, so is it fit for purpose? In this week’s NLJ, in the first of a three-part series, Penningtons Manches Cooper lawyers Kate Bridgland, associate, Oliver Cooke, senior associate, and Richard Marshall, partner, put SFO prosecutions in the dock.

The collapsed prosecution of three former G4S executives this year is just the latest of many disasters at the beleaguered SFO. Bridgland, Cooke and Marshall outline some of these, and ask what went wrong. They investigate how significant a factor the SFO’s lack of resources may have been in its catalogue of failures to date. They look at the usefulness of ‘blockbuster’ funding. They turn to the issue of disclosure. They discuss the optics of investment, both in terms of financial resources and ministerial support.

The authors write: ‘With additional budget, the SFO would arguably be able to instruct more qualified experts, procure more sophisticated resources, and would have more experienced and well-qualified people on the ground to manage the various elements of complex proceedings (such as disclosure requirements, which have recently been a particular source of difficulty).’

Find Part 1 of the authors' series on the UK financial crime landscape here.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
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