Jonathan Cotton > Slaughter and May > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Regularly representing multinational corporations, financial institutions, and public bodies in financial regulatory and corporate crime investigations and criminal proceedings, Slaughter and May fields a ‘world-class‘ disputes and investigations team with a ‘wealth of experience‘ in the space. Jonathan Cotton, who clients describe as ‘highly intelligent with excellent judgement‘, and Richard Swallow have extensive experience acting as coordinating counsel in cross-border investigations and regulatory matters, while Ewan Brown takes point on DPAs. Cotton, Brown, and Swallow now jointly lead the team. Other key individuals include Holly Ware, recommended for bribery and corruption issues, and Gayathri Kamalanathan, who regularly acts for financial institutions; Ella Williams is another key name here, while Nicholas Querée ably assists on agency-facing investigations.

Providing a ‘consistency of quality that is unprecedented’, Slaughter and May represents global corporations, financial institutions and governments in high-value, technically demanding disputes, in which allegations of fraud are key features. Richard Swallow heads the disputes and investigations group; Jonathan Cotton is experienced in disputes and investigations involving wrongdoing allegations; Efstathios Michael is ‘an amazing lawyer’; and Damian Taylor acts in a range of civil fraud matters. The next line of key practitioners comprises Peter Wickham and Megan Sandler, whose wide-ranging practices include fraud investigations, and Tahlia Brysha-Pullen, who has notable experience in high-value civil claims involving bribery and corruption allegations.

Richard Swallow leads the commercial litigation team at Slaughter and May, which boasts a successful track record in multijurisdictional corporate litigation. The practice’s stellar clientele spans various sectors, including energy, manufacturing and financial services. Efstathios Michael boasts a broad commercial litigation practice – with a particular focus on multi-party disputes and mass claims – alongside Camilla Sanger. Damian Taylor plays a lead role on a number of key matters, advising on distribution, contractual and damages disputes and Richard Jeens is praised by clients. Jonathan Clark represents corporations across a range of sectors in both commercial and competition litigation and Jonathan Cotton co-heads the global investigation group and advises on contentious aspects of corporate transactions. Peter Wickham‘s diverse roster of clients includes a number of corporations and financial institutions; he has particular experience in energy and natural resources disputes. Smriti Sriram, who was promoted to partner in May 2023, Holly Ware, and Megan Sandler are other names to note.