Regulatory investigations
When a regulator or enforcement body starts asking your business questions.
How we can help
- Advising at the earliest stage, before positions harden
- Managing information requests and identifying privileged material
- Preparing the business and individuals for interviews
- Advising on voluntary disclosure and its consequences
- Engaging constructively without conceding matters unnecessarily
- Managing parallel criminal, civil and insurance issues
What happens next
- Contact us as soon as you are aware of an investigation.
- We advise on scope, obligations and the strategy for engagement.
- We manage contact with the investigating body on your behalf.
Fees for this work
Quoted individually. Regulatory work varies enormously in scale and we will give staged estimates.
Common questions
Do we have to hand over everything they ask for?
Usually you must comply, and obstruction is often itself an offence. But scope can be clarified, privileged material must be identified before anything is sent, and how documents are presented matters. Take advice before responding.
Should we tell them about a problem they haven't found?
Sometimes voluntary disclosure significantly improves the outcome, and some regimes require it. Sometimes it creates exposure that would not otherwise have arisen. It is a judgement that needs making with advice, not instinctively.
Can our employees be interviewed separately?
Often yes, and their interests may differ from the business’s. Where that is a real possibility, separate representation needs considering early — it is much harder to unpick later.
How long do investigations take?
Frequently months, sometimes considerably longer. That is difficult commercially, and part of our job is keeping matters moving rather than letting them drift.
Tell us what's happened
Confidential, reviewed by a solicitor, answered within one working day.