Richard Egan and Jim Meyer have successfully represented clients in the most high profile bribery and corruption investigations. Most of these sorts of cases are investigated by the Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”), and Egan Meyer is well versed in its powers, some of which carry a criminal sanction if those at the receiving end fail to comply.
Businesses will often find out that they are suspected of criminal wrongdoing before any official contact by the SFO and Egan Meyer can assist by conducting a legally privileged, “internal”, investigation in order to establish the existence and extent of any potential offence and help inform the decision on what to do next. The latter is a vexed question which requires experience and a thorough understanding of the options available and the potential repercussions of each. A decision to self-report is no guarantee against prosecution, but it can be the precursor to an informed dialogue which has that as the end goal.
Most organisations will have their own solicitors and possibly an in-house legal team; they may not have the capacity or expertise to conduct their own investigation, or they may seek the protection of legal professional privilege. They may simply want to put some distance between themselves and the suspected culprits. These are just some of the many reasons that multinationals and magic circle firms have all sought the services of Jim Meyer and Richard Egan. Their ability to work as part of a larger team, often multi-disciplinary in nature, is one of the key reasons for their success in this type of work.