Charles Thomson > Baker McKenzie > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Baker McKenzie LLP fields an investigations, compliance, and ethics practice with a strong track record advising household names on the full gamut of corporate crime matters, including whistleblower issues, asset freezing orders, and bribery, corruption, and fraud investigations. Key individuals in London include Charles Thomson, who handles multijurisdictional fraud investigations; Jonathan Peddie, a key contact for financial institutions; and Sunny Mann, a key contact for sanctions, export control, and bribery compliance and investigations. Ludlam, Thomson, Peddie, and Mann jointly oversee the team. The team has recently seen an increase in instructions related to international sanctions and money laundering issues.

Baker McKenzie‘s ‘excellent litigators’ in London handle complex cross-border fraud investigations and litigation, in relation to conspiracy claims, economic torts, fraudulent misrepresentation and duress. Clients notably benefit from the firm’s enviable global reach (covering 74 offices in 45 countries), and the team is particularly experienced in assisting governments, sovereign wealth funds and international corporations with tracing, freezing and recovering misappropriated assets. It also fields experts in international preservation and disclosure orders, as well as fraud-related insolvency issues. The practice is co-led by ‘wonderful all-round litigator’ Charles Thomson, who additionally leads the business crime unit, and Hugh Lyons, whose wide-ranging caseload encompasses fraud and financial misconduct cases. The next line of experienced practitioners features Henry Garfield, whose career includes being seconded to the UK Serious Fraud Office, and Marc Florent, who acts for clients from the financial, commercial and industrial sectors in multi-party disputes. Other names to note are Kate Geale, whose experience includes representing an international science and chemicals company in an investigation into suspected bribery of foreign public officials; Ben Levitt, who is ‘a master of detail’; and Mark Banks, who is experienced in civil fraud, insolvency, sanctions and cross-border enforcements.