The Legal 500

Shearman Bowen & Co specialises in heavyweight criminal defence work and white-collar crime, with a growing reputation and proven track record in criminal confiscation and Proceeds of Crime Act cases.

The firm: Shearman Bowen & Co is a specialist criminal law practice renowned for its expertise in the full range of criminal defence work. The firm’s core business in serious and financial crime has continued to derive substantially from professional and own-client referrals.

The firm was founded in 2001 as a two-partner practice by Rick Shearman and Mark Bowen, and for years operated as a ‘well-kept secret’ in the profession. Listed in The Legal 500 for the first time in 2009, this expanding firm currently fields a team of 11 experienced and dedicated solicitors specialising in serious crime, business crime, criminal confiscation and POCA work.

Types of work undertaken: Fraud: the firm regularly defends individuals in criminal investigations and prosecutions brought by the Serious Fraud Office, HM Revenue & Customs, the Fraud Prosecution Service, the Financial Services Authority, local authorities, and other regulatory and investigative institutions.

Current/recent instructions include: defending the lead defendant in four-month, nine-handed charity fraud; advising a private client in relation to a City of London Police investigation into the £40m GFX Capital Markets collapse; defending a mortgage broker accused of a £23m fraud following collapse of the Money Machine chain; advising a client on a joint City of London Police/FSA/Lloyds of London investigation into international insurance fraud; advising a private client on Safe Deposit Centres Ltd investigation; defending an international banker accused of laundering the proceeds of crime through his private bank; defending a property developer accused of conspiring to defraud mortgage providers of £2m; and defending client accused of an £8.5m mortgage fraud and international money laundering.

Serious crime: the firm has strength in depth and a significant run of successes, including five consective not guilty verdicts in murder cases.

The firm has developed a niche practice in the ever-expanding area of criminal confiscation and POCA work. Its expertise has proven invaluable in advising and defending clients in the field of restraint orders, asset recovery, criminal confiscation and enforcement. In the past year alone, the firm has handled more than a dozen confiscation cases where the benefit exceeds £1m.

The firm has an in-house POCA team to handle complex financial investigations, which frequently works alongside established firms of forensic accountants and has achieved a spectacular level of success in the field. The firm has demonstrated time and again that specialist knowledge, sheer hard work and a unique systemic approach can pay dividends for clients in moderating the impact of the government’s wide-ranging powers in confiscation cases. The firm negotiates settlements directly with prosecutors and consistently achieves favourable results for clients.

The firm’s two senior partners have more than 36 years’ experience in criminal defence work between them and have conducted the defence in some of the country’s largest and most high-profile prosecutions during that time. Cases include R v Regan (the longest murder trial ever at the Old Bailey); R v Wright & others (the UK’s biggest-ever cocaine importation); and R v Worboys (the ‘taxi rapist’). Solicitors at the firm advise and represent clients in investigations and proceedings across the board, and throughout the country. The team prides itself on its thoroughness and its dedication to its clients’ interests.

Number of UK partners 3
Number of other UK fee-earners 12