Event Report

Private practice litigators, barristers and in-house lawyers gathered in the City’s Minster Building for Legal Business and Legal 500’s annual Financial, Regulatory and Disputes summit on 1 December.

The half-day event, sponsored by 3 Verulam Buildings (3VB), Dentons and Penningtons Manches Cooper, covered a range of issues, including the rise of UK class actions, an increasingly assertive Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the ins and outs of Upper Tribunal Proceedings.

Commercial litigator Catherine Gibuad KC, of headline sponsor 3VB, opened the morning with an overview of the current state of affairs in enforcement proceedings in the financial services space, outlining some recent significant decisions made by the Supreme Court, particularly those relating to fiduciary duties.

Dentons then kicked off the first panel, with an engaging session titled ‘Navigating Class Actions: Strategies and Challenges in Defending UK Collective Litigation’. The session, which was moderated by London disputes partner Tom Leyand, explored the group litigation landscape in the UK, including some of the limitations when it comes to delivering justice.

He was joined by fellow disputes partners Tom Hanson and Felicity Ewing, who leads Dentons’ financial services disputes team, to discuss successes in collective action cases since the UK competition regime was introduced. Ten years on from the introduction of the regime, the trio considered whether the UK competition regime has evolved as the government intended and whether it enables claimants to receive fair compensation. They also briefly addressed some of the recent public disputes between funders and law firms, when outcomes have not aligned with expectations.

The session was followed by a lively debate chaired by 3VB’s Saima Hanif KC titled PRA/FCA Enforcement in 2025 – Key Decisions, Trends and Future Outlook. Hanif was joined on stage by Anthony Monaghan, director of retail and regulatory investigations at the FCA, Claire Cross, a white collar partner at Corker Binning and Katie Stephen, co-head of Norton Rose Fulbright’s contentious financial services group.

Hanif moderated an animated discussion that started with Monaghan setting out the regulator’s more assertive and expedited approach to investigations, as well as the increased intervention powers granted to the regulator through VREQs and OIREQ interventions.

The group moved on to discuss non-financial misconduct and some of the inconsistencies in firms’ approaches to these issues. The session ended with discussion around what’s next on the horizon, with market abuse, ESG, consumer duty and crypto all flagged as topics to watch over the coming years.

Following a short coffee break, Penningtons took to the stage for a discussion titled ‘Beyond Compliance: Delivering Better Outcomes and Protections for Consumers’. The session saw managing associate Sarah Mant moderate a panel that included disputes partner Michael Brown, employment partner Tom Walker and senior disputes consultant Teja Picton-Howell.

The session kicked off by looking at the impact of non-financial misconduct in the boardroom, with Walker discussing the recent focus on psychological safety in the workplace and how this should be driven from the top down, with Picton-Howell then moving to discuss the Consumer Duty Regulation and Brown outlining some of the upcoming changes to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the FCA, particularly in relation to the UK’s financial redress scheme.

After Penningtons, headline sponsor 3VB returned to the stage, with Adam Temple leading a fireside chat with Kingsley Napley financial service partner Jill Lorimer on the ‘Nuts and Bolts of the Upper Tribunal Proceedings’. The discussion covered everything from privacy applications for those subject to FCA enforcement, through to the FCA’s shifting approach to disclosure and its obligation to call relevant witnesses.

The final session saw Legal Business editorial director Georgina Stanley joined on stage by reputation counsel Byfield’s joint managing director Michael Evans. The fireside chat explored the reputational risks financial institutions face from litigation and regulatory investigations. From how to handle sensitive non-financial misconduct claims, through to the challenges posed by ever-faster legal reporting driven by AI and greater transparency, Evans talked through some of the common PR mistakes companies make when facing a crisis and how to do it better, emphasising the importance of being prepared.

To conclude the morning, Gibaud KC returned to the stage, offering final reflections on the sessions of the day and highlighting why ‘status quo is not an option’ when it comes to enforcement in the financial services space.