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
Email:

This specialist practice is best known as a leading firm in fraud (ie civil fraud, regulatory work and business crime), commercial and trust litigation, corporate investigations, international asset tracing, financial regulation, anti-money laundering, corruption, criminal antitrust (cartels), extradition and mutual legal assistance.

The firm: Peters & Peters was one of the first practices to develop a key multi-disciplinary approach, where the firm has a very considerable level of expertise. Much of its work is high-profile and international in scope. It has close working relationships with many overseas law firms. The firm regularly works with governments and advises foreign regulators and international organisations. It acts for governments, corporations, financial institutions, professionals and individuals.

Types of work undertaken: Commercial litigation and civil fraud: heavy and intricate commercial litigation, including international asset tracing, is recognised as one of the firm’s core strengths. Its expertise covers the whole range of contentious work, including civil fraud, trust litigation, contractual disputes and defamation, and personal and corporate bankruptcy and related insolvency matters. The firm has a wealth of experience in the application of emergency procedures, both within and outside the jurisdiction of the UK. The firm’s parallel sanctions expertise enables it to undertake proceedings in tandem involving civil/commercial litigation on the one hand and criminal/regulatory litigation on the other. The firm frequently undertakes internal investigations on behalf of corporations.

Fraud and regulatory matters: the firm’s longstanding experience and pre-eminence in the wide-ranging disciplines of both commercial fraud and regulatory issues is universally recognised. It acts for large organisations in both an investigative and preventative role, as well as for many private clients. Cases encompass all forms of corporate fraud, corruption, cross-border issues (including extradition and mutual legal assistance), as well as forensic tax and revenue work. Its expertise includes VAT and customs infractions, insolvency crimes, securities offences and all examples of business delinquency. The firm is pre-eminent in dealing with compliance and anti-money laundering issues, crisis management and defence, not only for financial institutions and corporates, but also for the professions. Working with The Law Society, the firm developed a CD-rom-based anti-money laundering training programme for the legal profession and has been involved in a national training programme with one of the UK’s clearing banks.

Financial regulation/the criminalisation of cartels/data protection/freedom of information/corporate governance/professional disciplinary: the firm deals with a variety of antitrust (criminalisation of cartels), compliance, regulatory and corporate governance matters, including anti-money laundering compliance, policy-making and crisis management. Its expertise covers major FSA and BERR investigations and general regulatory compliance work. The firm has extensive expertise in work under the Data Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act.

Extradition and international mutual legal assistance: this is a major practice area and the team includes the author of the leading practitioner text Jones and Doobay on Extradition and Mutual Assistance (Sweet & Maxwell).

Other: members of the firm frequently speak at international conferences throughout the world.

Breakdown of work %
Commercial litigation/civil fraud 36
Fraud and regulatory 64

Number of UK partners 9
Number of other UK fee-earners 19

Above material supplied by Peters & Peters.

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