The Legal 500

A central London law firm with 37 years’ litigation experience, particularly crime and regulatory, civil litigation, and motoring

The firm: From offices by the High Court, Saunders Law Ltd provides a litigation service without compromise on quality, delivered on time, at a fair price.

Types of work undertaken: Regulation: an explosion of regulation has created problems and traps for honest but unwary professionals and businesses in so many areas and the firm specialises in dealing with them. The new Bribery Act continues the trend and it has already been retained in two major defence industry corruption investigations. The financial services team, led by Stephen Gilchrist, is particularly active in land banking and other collective investment scheme cases brought by the FSA; it secured one of the first ever defeats of the FSA in an insider trading prosecution in R v Rimmington & ors. Saunders Law Partnership is active in the regulation of professions and sports; James Saunders and Gillian Benning are members of the Solicitors Assistance Scheme and it contributes to the Law Society guidance on money laundering. The health and safety practice hit a high in R v Todd in which a prosecution for manslaughter at the summit of Mount Everest was defeated. The firm is currently instructed regarding the spectacular failure of Crown Currency Exchange.

Fraud: the firm’s larger cases are often prosecuted by the SFO or City Fraud Squad and the volume of advance fee, commercial, tax and mortgage fraud prosecutions increases as the recession bites. In the last year it acted at trial and on appeal for Kevin Foster, the controversial investment roadshow entrepreneur in his £46m ‘Ponzi’ SF0 prosecution; R v Abrue, a worldwide boiler room prosecution; the multimillion-pound SFO advance fee fraud trial at Southwark Crown Court involving celebrity socialite ‘Lord’ Edward Davenport; R v De Boer, a £37m cross-border telecoms fraud. HMRC is as active as ever in tax evasion and MTIC carousel VAT prosecutions. Restraint and confiscation orders, civil recovery and cash seizure cases under POCA are specialities; the firm has a contract to handle legally aided very high-cost cases.

Traditional crime: the firm appears daily in criminal courts throughout London and beyond, often representing defendants in high-profile and complex trials and appeals. It is known for excellence in dealing with difficult legal, scientific and medical issues. R v Twomey was the Heathrow airport robbery case where jury nobbling was claimed but not evidenced by the Crown, and became one of the first such English non-jury trials on indictment since the time of Oliver Cromwell; important constitutional issues are on appeal. The 2011 alleged gangland killing acquittal of James Vaughn raised worrying questions as to police conduct. In R v White, phone tapping disclosure issues triggered the collapse of the prosecution. The firm deals with European Arrest Warrants, extradition cases, cross-border evidence collection and appellate work at the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights. The 24/7 emergency police station service and other legal aid work are LSC peer reviewed category one – the highest possible rating.

Motoring: a full service is offered for all motoring cases throughout the country. Gary Bromelow leads an experienced team who often keep clients driving when initial prospects look bleak. Discretion is assured for high-profile clients with sensitive media profiles.

Litigation: the regulatory practice involves substantial incidental civil litigation but also undertakes discrete litigation. The firm has a specialist team taking actions against the police and other detaining authorities for wrongdoing, misfeasance, breach of human rights, discrimination and deaths in custody and have a legal aid contract for this work. It represents interested parties at inquests. The busy employment lawyers act for both claimants and respondents and take cases on appeal; the firm deals with contractual, property and general litigation and offers a range of flexible funding arrangements. It deals with contentious insolvency work for individuals and firms, and cases of wrongful or insolvent trading. In family law, in addition to divorce, arrangements for children and ancillary relief, the firm settles pre-nuptial agreements and handles international child abduction cases.

Breakdown of work %
Regulation and fraud 40
Crime and motoring 35
Litigation 25

Number of UK directors 5
Number of other UK fee-earners 27