The Legal 500

15 FETTER LANE, LONDON, EC4A 1BW
Tel:
Work 020 7822 7777
Fax:
Fax 020 7822 7788
DX:
407 LONDON CHANCERY LANE
Web:
www.petersandpeters.com
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What we say about the firm's legal practice in London

Corporate and commercial

Within Customs & Excise, Peters & Peters is a first tier firm,

Peters & Peters is acknowledged as expert in tax investigations and regularly advises corporate clients and high-net-worth individuals who have become the subject of HMRC enquiries. With a focus on fraud and criminal matters, the practice is currently advising numerous clients as a result of HMRC’s success in gaining access to information about offshore accounts held by UK taxpayers. Monty Raphael and Sarah Gabriel are both recommended.

Within EU and competition ,

While this section focuses on corporate representation, for cartel criminal actions against executives Peters & Peters (notably partners Michael O’Kane and Jo Rickards) is the ‘market-leading’ firm.

Within Financial services, tier 4

Peters & Peters is recommended for market abuse cases. The team acted for an individual in an insider dealing investigation being conducted in Paris by the AMF. Monty Raphael and Jo Rickards are well regarded.

Within VAT and indirect tax, tier 4

Peters & Peters’ practice focuses on contentious matters and investigations by HMRC. It acted in an appeal for a number of UK telecoms corporations concerning the HMRC’s refusal to repay more than £30m of VAT arising from the export of mobile phones. Sarah Gabriel and Monty Raphael are praised by clients.

Crime, fraud and licensing

Within Fraud - commercial and regulatory investigations, Peters & Peters is a first tier firm,

Peters & Peters has a longstanding reputation as a leading firm in the area. The ‘flamboyant and outgoing’ Keith Oliver is ‘very knowledgeable’ and ‘strategically very sound’, and has ‘a big-picture mentality’, and Jonathan Tickner is a ‘very competent and impressive lawyer’. The practice successfully represented the London Strategic Health Authority on behalf of the NHS at trial in April 2008, recovering millions of pounds from pharmaceutical companies.

Within Fraud - crime , Peters & Peters is a first tier firm,

Peters & PetersAnand Doobay acted for six former executives of Yukos in resisting extradition requests by the Russian Federation. Jo Rickards is ‘a very able’ and ‘very competent’ lawyer.

Within Overview,

Since the reduction of legal aid, most criminal practices compete for a limited number of VHCC (Very High Cost Cases). Some less specialised firms remain committed to taking on all legal aid cases, whereas others such as Peters & Peters have dropped legal aid altogether except for existing clients. Crime practices are given credit in the rankings if they have a high rate of securing acquittals on controversial or serious crimes, or if they have been chosen to defend in high-profile criminal cases.

Within Overview,

In response, City firms such as Simmons & Simmons are developing in-house criminal law capabilities. Conversely, traditional crime firms such as Peters & Peters are moving into corporate and civil law. Nonetheless, the market insists that traditional criminal fraud specialists are favoured for individuals seeking defence, particularly since individuals who have had assets frozen will have to seek legal aid to pay for legal services. The Fraud: commercial and regulatory investigations section covers firms experienced in civil fraud prosecutions and those that advise on compliance issues with regulators such as the FSA and the Securities Exchange Commission in the US.

Dispute resolution

Within Commercial litigation, tier 7

While Peters & Peters is rightly regarded as one of the leading firms for civil fraud and white-collar crime, its wider commercial disputes practice is also highly recommended. A recent highlight was advising the Department of Health in over £100m-worth of price and supply fixing claims against several pharmaceutical companies. Senior partner Keith Oliver heads the first-class team.


Legal Developments in the UK

Legal Developments and updates from the leading lawyers in each jurisdiction. To contribute, send an email request to
  • Student employees – new restrictions on employment

    On 10 February 2010 a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules was laid before Parliament which is due to come into force on 3 March 2010.
    - Penningtons Solicitors LLP
  • Landlord & Tenant Briefing

    Dilapidations in commercial premises – ten points to consider
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • Being a helpful Landlord may be a mistake!

    Most landlords and their solicitors try to resist the impulse to be helpful, however, in these recessionary times when landlords are concerned to avoid empty space, there may be the temptation to take shortcuts to ensure a letting proceeds. In circumstances where it is intended that Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (the 1954 Act) should not apply to the tenancy, i.e. that the tenant should not have the benefit of security of tenure, then occupation before the lease has been finalised (and the appropriate ‘contracting-out’ steps taken) is a potentially dangerous step and needs to be taken only when the landlord has fully comprehended the potential consequences.
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • New regime for approval of major transport projects set to ‘switch on’

    The Planning Act 2008 (the Act) introduces a new regime designed to speed up the planning and, in turn, the delivery of infrastructure projects of national significance. For transport projects, it is one of the most important pieces of legislation in recent years. The new procedure will have to be used for any third runway at Heathrow, amongst other high-profile projects.
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • Divorce and the media: the courts, the pay-outs and the speculation

    The rising divorce rate and some well-publicised settlements running into tens of millions of pounds have focused attention on a growing issue in divorce cases: just how far can spouses go to obtain information about their partner’s financial affairs?
    - Schillings
  • Top ten really useful cases of 2009

    If you want your panel solicitor to‘get off the fence’, need to know when a cause of action accrues or wondered whether the judiciary live in the 21st century, the following cases from 2009 provide some really useful guidance. With professional negligence claims on the increase, whether you are giving or receiving legal advice, the cases discussed below highlight practical points for all legal advisers to be aware of.
    - Bond Pearce LLP
  • The twilight zone: legal issues for directors

    there is no legal definition of the term ‘twilight zone’ (perhaps derived from the cult TV series, the writer would like to think), which is now widely used to describe a period of trading when a company has, or is predicted to have, insufficient cash to pay its debts as they fall due. This might be an immediate cash-flow crisis or the problem might be anticipated many months ahead.
    - Holman Fenwick Willan
  • Cloud computing:key issues for SMEs

    Although many definitions exist, broadly speaking ‘cloud computing’ is the outsourcing of specified IT functions via the internet (the cloud) to provide or receive services that would otherwise only be available if the end user had installed the appropriate hardware and/or software on desktops, or on local networks controlled by that organisation itself. Such services may include the use of software over the internet or remote storage of business data by a third-party provider. One benefit of this is that businesses can structure payment for these services differently (for example pay-as-you-go or on a subscription basis), rather than having to pay large sunk costs for long-term software licences, and the purchase and installation of IT infrastructure necessary to support the services locally.
    - SJ Berwin LLP
  • Commission victorious in ‘regulatory holiday’ action brought against Germany

    On 3 December 2009, following an action brought by the European Commission under article 226 of the EC Treaty (now article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed that Germany had failed to comply with its obligations under the European regulatory framework for telecommunications (the Common Regulatory Framework (CRF)). The ECJ’s judgment in European Commission v Germany [2009] confirms that Germany acted unlawfully by adopting a national law excluding ‘new markets’ from regulation – so called ‘regulatory holidays’.
    - SJ Berwin LLP
  • New Commission

    On Friday 27 November 2009 the new European Commission, which will begin its mandate early in 2010, was announced by Commission President José Barroso. This announcement followed a week after the appointment of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton as the President of the European Council and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy respectively, the two new roles created by the Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force on 1 December 2009.
    - Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP