Lessons Learned From The Rolls-Royce Deferred Prosecution Agreement

This article was originally published in The Law Society Gazette and can be found here.

On 17 January 2017, Sir Brian Leveson, the President of the Queen's Bench Division, declared that the proposed Deferred Prosecution Agreement ("DPA") between the SFO and Rolls-Royce plc and Rolls-Royce Energy Systems Inc (together, "Rolls-Royce") was in the interests of justice and that its terms were fair, reasonable, and proportionate. It is only the UK's third DPA and, whilst the body of law remains nascent, there do appear to be some useful lessons and emerging trends that can be gleaned from its study.

This article reflects on the:

I. level of cooperation;
II. scale of financial penalty;