The In-House Lawyer

The calm before the storm: are you prepared for a dawn raid? 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 ... Read more	Privilege revisited: privilege issues in internal investigations 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 ... Read more
Consent and connivance: the criminal liability of directors and senior officers 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 ... Read more	Global trends in anti-corruption: is the OECD levelling the playing field? 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 ... Read more
Establishing the criminal liability of corporations 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 ... Read more	Wrestling with the Data Protection Act 1998 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, ... Read more
The SFO: a new director, a new beginning? 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 ... Read more	Deferred Prosecution Agreements and a tough new director at the SFO: is a rush to the negotiation ta After many months promoting the introduction of Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) in the UK, the solicitor general, Edward Garnier QC, is close to securing his goal. With strong government backing, the support of the incoming ... Read more
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