Financial Crime; POCA Work & Asset Forfeiture; Health & Safety; Administrative & Public Law; Environment. Regulatory investigations; corporate crime; financial crime; Coroner’s inquests; public inquiries. Corporate manslaughter; health and safety; fire safety; food safety; environmental protection; consumer protection and trading standards. Serious fraud; tax fraud; money laundering; bribery and corruption; insider dealing and market abuse. AML/ABC compliance; recovery of the proceeds of crime (restraint; confiscation; cash seizure; unexplained wealth; civil recovery); judicial review of the actions of investigators. Crisis management; corporate and director liability; corporate internal investigations; corporate engagement with regulators; responding to complex investigations and prosecutions.
Health and safety
Hall of Fame
The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.
Melinka is a litigation specialist with expertise in the fields of private prosecutions, professional discipline and Health and Safety. Melinka heads up the team responsible for private prosecutions. She helps individuals, corporates and charities bring criminal prosecutions, especially when the State fails to act. Melinka has over twelve years’ experience of investigating and presenting high-profile fitness to practise cases. She also advises regulatory clients on the suitability of their enforcement regimes. Melinka acts for directors and senior officers accused of committing health and safety offences. She also advises them on what constitutes effective governance over health and safety within their organisations. Prior to joining Kingsley Napley, Melinka was the Head of Licensing for JD Wetherspoon plc. She continues to help operators in the leisure sector to comply with their regulatory responsibilities or respond to enforcement action.
Head of the firm's Dispute Resolution unit. Specialises in strategic health and safety and risk management, liability claims and commercial disputes. At the heart of Ann’s work is support to clients in infrastructure businesses; in particular the transport, construction, energy and industrial sectors.
Jon is a partner specialising in health, safety and environment, whose work covers not only prosecution and enforcement action but also advisory work in relation to risk management, health and safety policies and due diligence in corporate transactions including advice on all aspects of health and safety. Jon’s practice encompasses all aspects of contentious and non-contentious health, safety and environmental issues including advising on formal investigations and prosecutions, advising on appeals against Notices and dealing with judicial review proceedings relating to health, safety and environmental issues. He regularly appears as an advocate before the criminal Courts and employment tribunals on health and safety matters. He also advises on formal investigations and Boards of Inquiry. He advises clients in the private and public sector, including on formal investigations by the Environment Agency and local authorities, criminal investigations and defending prosecutions, statutory nuisance proceedings on behalf of local authorities and others and advising on judicial review relating to environmental issues, particular in the nuclear industry. Jon and his team have been involved in many of the leading health, safety and environmental cases in recent years. He sits on the editorial Board of Lexis Nexis Health and Safety at Work magazine.
Rising stars
Rising stars with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.
Joanne is a Principal Associate (Barrister) in regulatory and criminal lawyer, with significant experience of investigations and prosecutions by various regulatory agencies including the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, the Health and Safety Executive, Local Authorities and OFSTED. She previously worked for the Environment Agency, where she advised on enforcement and dealt with all aspects of prosecutions and civil sanctions. She has a particularly specialised knowledge of environmental law. Joanne has recent experience acting for businesses following significant pollution incidents, including assisting clients with internal investigations, and helping them to submit high-value Enforcement Undertakings (which offer an alternative to prosecution). She also advises clients on compliance with environmental regulation. Since joining Shoosmiths in 2017, Joanne has advised clients following fatal and serious accidents involving employees and customers, businesses facing nuisance complaints, retailers facing prosecution for trading standards offences, and companies who are the subject of allegations of breach of planning control. Joanne qualified as a barrister in 2005 and spent the early part of her career in independent practice. She defended and prosecuted criminal cases in the Magistrates, Crown and appeal courts. She is an accomplished advocate who understands how the criminal justice system operates. Her previous experience prosecuting for the Environment Agency and defending in criminal cases has given her a thorough understanding of regulatory enforcement in practice.
Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
Partner. Mamata is a Partner in the General Liability and Medical team. Mamata's work covers complex personal injury cases involving fatalities and/or catastrophic injury, Product Liability claims, policy coverage and incidents involving health and safety / environmental investigations. Mamata advises clients who are being investigated by various enforcement authorities including the Police, Health & Safety Executive, Local Authorities, Trading Standards and Fire Authorities. She also advises clients on a range of product liability issues, including liability claims and issues surrounding product recall.
Hannah is a partner in the Regulatory team. She is head of the Regulatory team of advocates. She specialises in professional discipline, regulatory, criminal and fire safety law. In the area of professional discipline Hannah has acted for some of the leading regulatory bodies in high profile and complex cases. These regulators include the Health and Care Professions Council, the Teaching Regulation Agency, the Education and Workforce Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Architects Registration Board, CILEx Regulation and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Having acted for both the prosecution and defence throughout her career, Hannah fully understands the effect that proceedings may have on the individual or prosecuting body. She is known for being a thoughtful and fair advocate, whilst always seeking the best outcome for the client.
Tom McNeill is a partner at BCL specialising in defending companies and from investigations and prosecutions brought by the police/CPS, HSE, ORR, Local Authorities, Fire and Rescue Authorities, Environment Agency. Has particular expertise in crisis management, internal investigations and corporate and director liability, corporate and individual manslaughter, health and safety (including coroner’s inquests), environmental protection, fire safety. Tom has a dual practice and also specialises in corporate/financial crime including all types of fraud, bribery, and money laundering.
Helen is a partner in the market-leading Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) team at Dentons. She advises clients on all aspects of environmental, climate change, societal and human rights issues, across a wide range of sectors including energy, manufacturing, industrial and chemicals. Her practice is varied and includes transactional work as well as advisory and litigation, including Environment Agency and HSE investigations and prosecutions, judicial reviews and statutory appeals. She advises on environmental permitting, pollution liability, waste law, climate change, health and safety law, and product liability. Helen has an international practice, having worked in Dubai and South Africa, and regularly advises on environmental risk in cross-border transactions.
Leading individuals
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Please see full biography at osborneclarke.com/lawyers/mary-lawrence/
Jo is a partner in the construction and engineering and professional indemnity departments. Jo has extensive experience in advising professionals in the construction industry having represented engineers, architects, quantity surveyors and project managers and their professional indemnity insurers. She has advised in both small and high value complex litigation in the TCC as well as mediations and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. Jo specialises in adjudication both in bringing high value fee claim adjudications and defending professional negligence adjudications including a multi million pound double adjudication arising out of a high profile PFI project. Jo also advises clients in relation to health and safety and regulatory law. She advises on all aspects of an investigation and/or prosecution including what to do after an accident, coroners’ inquests, regulatory offences, sentencing and insurance cover. Jo successfully advised on the acquittal of a corporate manslaughter prosecution in the crown court against an engineer. In recent years Jo has been involved in a number of claims against surveyors, both residential valuation claims and missed defect claims. Jo is currently involved in an initiative to stream line the method of dealing with and resolving claims against surveyors and working in conjunction with surveyors, RICS, brokers, insurers and lenders to achieve this.Jo has also advised solicitors, insurance brokers, IFAs and their professional indemnity insurers in defendant actions. She has advised in particular in large high profile multi party claims from the Financial Compensation Scheme defending independent financial advisors and in bringing a claim by multiple claimants in regard to complicated financial pension advice against various financial institutions and IFAs. Jo also regularly advised insurers on all aspects of professional liability policy coverage.
Richard is a partner specialising in corporate crime, regulatory investigations (including ESG compliance) and financial crime. He has extensive experience representing companies and individuals in relation to the most serious, complex and high-profile contentious matters. He is instructed from the early stages of cases to provide proactive advice regarding crisis management, large internal and external investigations, regulators’ powers, corporate co-operation, interviews under caution, prosecutions and associated proceedings such as inquests. He advises regarding a broad range of offences, such as corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, health and safety, food safety and hygiene (acting for Michelin starred restaurant groups and high street name food businesses), environmental (he advised in relation to the largest ever investigation by the Environment Agency), fire safety and trading. He also advises regarding financial offences such as fraud, bribery, insider dealing (he represented a defendant in the largest and most complex investigation into insider dealing ever conducted by the FCA), market manipulation and money laundering. He is frequently instructed in cases which require technical expertise in overlapping areas of business crime and regulation, for example joint police and Health and Safety Executive investigations and allegations of regulatory breaches combined with financial crime such as food and environmental fraud. The nature of his cases often involves the exercise of regulators’ powers (e.g. dawn raids, compelled document requests and enforcement notices). His caseload includes matters being investigated and prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency, Food Standards Agency, Local Authorities, Fire and Rescue Authorities, Serious Fraud Office, Financial Conduct Authority, Information Commissioner’s Office and Crown Prosecution Service.
Sheena qualified in 1992 having trained with Beale & Company. She has over 20 years’ experience advising clients within the construction and related industries on a wide range of disputes and on investigations and prosecutions under health and safety law. Sheena has advised and represented numerous clients and their insurers in relation to civil claims both advancing claims for construction industry clients through the most effective means and defending negligence claims brought against them; conducting early risk assessments for clients to understand the merits of their position and achieve results which takes into account those risks and the need for a proportionate approach to costs. Her work is across all sectors of the construction industry and she has a thorough understanding of the issues of importance. She undertakes an increasing amount of work with an international focus, providing legal support for high-profile projects across the world. Sheena’s work in the health and safety field includes numerous fatal site accidents and personal injury claims that can follow construction site and workplace accidents. She represents clients throughout HSE and Police investigations and in criminal prosecutions brought by the HSE and CPS. She has many years experience in representing clients in meetings and interviews with the Police and the HSE during the course of an investigation including interviews under caution. Sheena advises on CDM and other health and safety legislation and assists clients in the implementation of good practice. Sheena works with her clients to set and keep under review the overall strategy to resolution and manages delivery to achieve the client’s aims in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
