Speakers
Laurence Emmett KC, barrister (King’s Counsel), One Essex Court
Laurence Emmett KC is an experienced trial advocate and was appointed KC in 2021. His practice extends over the full range of issues that arise in commercial disputes, including litigation and international arbitration. His experience covers issues of contractual interpretation, jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments and injunctive relief. He has particular experience in banking and finance, the energy industry (including hydrocarbon-based and renewable resources), and the pharmaceutical industry. Laurence is consistently ranked by Legal 500 for Banking and Finance, Energy, and Commercial Litigation: ‘very clever and insightful, blending knowledge and experience with commercial sensibility’ (Legal 500 UK Bar 2025).
Andrew Hill, partner, Fox Williams
Andrew Hill leads Fox Williams’ securities litigation team and has been at the forefront of developing this area in the UK since 2014. Specialising in group actions for institutional investors, Andrew has spearheaded high-profile cases, including one of the UK’s first securities litigation claims (under s90A FSMA), against Tesco. He is currently leading major claims against Glencore, Petrofac, Boohoo, and Entain, focusing on corporate misconduct and ESG-related issues. Recognised in Chambers & Partners as “one of the leading practitioners in securities litigation” (Band 2 in 2025), Lawdragon’s 2024 Global 500 Plaintiff Lawyers, and Legal 500 as a Leading Partner. Andrew is dual-qualified in the UK and Australia.
Eleanor Campbell, barrister, One Essex Court
Eleanor Campbell has a broad practice in commercial litigation and arbitration, with her core practice areas including civil fraud, energy, contractual disputes in a broad range of contexts, and financial regulation. Eleanor frequently acts for the Financial Conduct Authority, and is instructed in the ongoing NOx emissions group litigation.
David Hamilton, partner, Howard Kennedy
David is a partner in Howard Kennedy’s Business Crime and Regulatory team. He is a white-collar and regulatory lawyer with a particular specialism in financial services enforcement and compliance.
David has over 15 years’ experience representing individuals and corporates in the context of internal investigations and actions brought by domestic and international regulatory and law enforcement bodies including the FCA, FOS, SFO, HMRC, and US Department of Justice. Notably, he has advised insurance and investment firms in the context of significant consumer redress schemes, represented firms and individuals in FCA enforcement actions relating to LIBOR and FX benchmark manipulation, insider dealing and market manipulation, governance and oversight failings, and non-financial misconduct, and represented firms in relation to substantial FOS disputes including historical pension and fund investments.
Alongside his investigations practice, David has significant experience advising clients on financial crime and regulatory compliance systems and controls. He has worked across a broad range of sectors, including financial services, real estate, energy, infrastructure and retail to implement appropriate risk-based preventive procedures.
Andrew Tuson, partner, BCLP
Fleur Eysenck, legal counsel, litigation, investigations and enforcement EME, Barclays Legal
Fleur Eysenck is Legal Counsel in Barclays’ Litigation, Investigations & Enforcement team working on a range of regulatory internal and external investigations, and commercial litigation matters. Prior to working at Barclays, Fleur spent 5 years at the criminal bar, followed by 10 years in the FCA’s enforcement division working principally on wholesale regulatory and criminal investigations and prosecutions, latterly as a Technical Specialist in the criminal prosecutions team.
Katherine Cooper, partner, BCLP
Ranked Band 1 in Chambers USA Nationwide for Derivatives enforcement, Katherine Cooper is an experienced lawyer with extensive experience in the sale and trading of commodities, derivatives, securities, and digital assets. She also represents clients in related regulatory and grand jury investigations, enforcement actions, and criminal prosecutions.
For more than 20 years, Katherine served in leadership roles at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, swap dealers, and a financial derivatives exchange. At the CFTC, she rose to senior trial attorney within the Division of Enforcement where she oversaw the investigation and prosecution of enforcement actions involving frauds and other wrongdoing by brokerage houses, commodity trading advisers, commodity pool operators, foreign exchange boiler rooms and exchange floor members. Some of these matters led her to conduct collaborative investigations with the FBI and other governmental agencies. Subsequently, she served as the Chief Regulatory Officer of NYSE Liffe US, a CFTC-registered futures exchange. Drawing on that background, she offers market participants trusted guidance in navigating the often-confusing legal and regulatory landscape for financial services. She provides clients not only knowledge about applicable law, but also an understanding of the interplay between market participants trading derivatives and financial products.
Katherine has also worked in senior compliance roles leading teams covering the public sales and trading of fixed income, currencies and commodities assets, as well as equity execution, equity derivatives, preferred securities, and structured products businesses.
Katherine is qualified in New York and Ireland.
Polly James, partner and global practice co-leader – financial services disputes and investigations, BCLP
Polly is an experienced financial services regulatory lawyer who helps financial institutions and their boards to manage regulatory risks arising in a broad range of situations spanning enforcement proceedings, supervisory interventions (e.g. s166 reviews and use of ‘own initiative powers’), whistleblower reports, FOS complaints and navigating legal/regulatory changes. Polly regularly conducts internal investigations in the financial services sector across a wide range of subject matter, with a particular focus on dealing with whistleblower allegations and other sensitive matters.
Polly is listed as a Leading Individual for contentious regulatory work in both Chambers & Partners and the Legal500.
“Polly is simply brilliant. She is such a strong advocate, and has great empathy and understanding. She makes terrible processes bearable.” (Chambers & Partners UK 2025)
Saima Hanif KC, 3 Verulam Buildings
Saima Hanif KC is a is a global expert in financial services. Described as someone who “… is quickly becoming the dominant force in FSR [Financial Services Regulation], both domestically and abroad…” (Legal 500) she is listed in the legal directories across the UK, EMEA and Asia Pacific, where she is recognised for her “excellent judgement”, being “technically very gifted” and who has “great knowledge of the FS industry.” She has appeared in a number of high-profile enforcement cases, including Rollet v DFSA (where she obtained a rare privacy order in the Dubai Financial Markets Tribunal) T & I v FCA, where she acted for the claimants in a rare successful judicial review of the FCA, and Tinney v FCA, an Upper Tribunal decision which set a new precedent on penalties. She was retained counsel for the Guernsey Financial Services Commission and has also acted for the PRA and the FSCS. In 2023, Saima was appointed to the Guernsey Financial Servies Commission Panel of Senior Decision Makers. She has represented clients before regulatory bodies in numerous jurisdictions including Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. She has a particular expertise in matters at the intersection of financial services and public law. In January 2022, Saima was named in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 list, recognising stand-out excellence in the legal profession.
Anthony Monaghan, director of retail and regulatory investigations, FCA
Anthony is the Director responsible for all consumer protection and retail markets Enforcement investigations at the FCA (regulatory, civil and criminal), as well as the FCA’s Interventions function and the team engaging with firms not meeting Threshold Conditions. His Directorate also conducts a significant number of investigations into matters relating to financial crime. Investigations are conducted in a range of sectors including crypto assets, retail banking, general insurance, fund and asset management, mortgage broking and lending, pensions, financial advice, and client money and assets. Anthony joined the FCA after several years as a litigator at Herbert Smith LLP (now Herbert Smith Freehills). Prior to that, Anthony spent 5 years at the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), an organisation that specialises in resolving commercial disputes through alternative dispute resolution, and particularly mediation. He is an Accredited Commercial Mediator and joint editor of the book Butterworths Mediators on Mediation.
Miles Bake, head of legal, Bank of England
Miles Bake is currently a Head of Legal at the Bank of England, and has worked in banking and financial services for more than 20 years. He has held a number of senior leadership roles at the Bank of England, including Head of Enforcement & Litigation and Head of Compliance , and spent two years on secondment as Director of Governance at the Financial Conduct Authority. Prior to joining the Bank, Miles was a finance lawyer at an international law firm and spent time working in an investment bank.
Reflecting Miles’s interest in regulation generally, he has recently been appointed a Director of the Institute of Regulation and is co-chair of the Institute’s Legal Special Interest Group.
Catherine Gibaud KC, barrister, 3 Verulam Buildings
Catherine is an experienced commercial litigator, specialising in banking and finance, financial services and regulation, civil fraud, group litigation, corporate insolvency and fraudulent trading disputes, and professional negligence & indemnity work. She is recommended as a leading silk in Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500.
Catherine has particular experience in disputes involving misleading statements to investors and the mis-selling of complex financial products and derivatives.
As part of her contentious regulatory practice, Catherine acts for individuals, regulated firms and regulatory bodies. Catherine has been instructed by regulators including FCA, FRC, and GFSC (Guernsey Financial Services Commission). Before taking silk, Catherine was regularly instructed for the Government (on the Attorney General’s panels) in Directors’ Disqualification proceedings and for the Secretary of State in winding up companies in the public interest under s124A Insolvency Act.
In 2018, Catherine was appointed to the part-time role of Senior Decision Maker by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission. In cases appointed to them, Senior Decision Makers, sitting alone, determine the outcome of the Commission’s major enforcement cases.
Katharine Harle, head of UK regulatory & investigations, Dentons
Katharine leads our UK Regulatory & Investigations team Her own practice is investigations and financial services focused; Katharine advises on all aspects of financial markets and regulatory work with a particular focus on contentious work, governance and conduct and culture. She previously spent nearly five years as an FCA lawyer including working in its Enforcement division and has been involved in many of the most significant regulatory issues over the past 15 years including bank charges, PPI, Keydata, Libor, FX, IRHPs and Woodford. Katharine’s clients include both public organizations and a wide range of regulated firms including banks, investment firms, insurers, brokers, credit institutions and payments firms, as well as individuals.
Katharine won Financial Regulation Lawyer of the Year at the 2023 Women in Business Law awards and is listed in the 2024 Lawyer Hot 100. She is also ranked in Legal 500 and Chambers for Financial Services: Contentious.
Felicity Ewing, partner, Dentons
Felicity leads Dentons’ highly regarded financial services litigation team and is recognised as a leading partner for investment and retail banking litigation. She specialises in complex, strategic or high-value disputes and often involving regulatory issues. She is also a group action defence expert, with over 15 years’ experience supporting clients facing multiparty claims. Her financial services experience includes capital markets disputes; acting for bond and security trustees in litigation; acting for banks in project finance disputes; a range of ms-selling claims and consumer finance and conduct claims, including claims under the Consumer Credit Act.
Felicity has longstanding relationships with a range of financial institutions and is ranked in Legal 500 and Chambers for Banking Litigation.
Luci Mitchell-Fry, partner, Dentons
Luci advises a wide range of stakeholders on all aspects of restructuring, with a practice spanning the full spectrum from consensual restructuring to formal insolvency. Luci has particular expertise in the use of restructuring tools (e.g. restructuring plans and schemes of arrangement) including in the context of UK redress schemes, acting for both debtors and creditors. Much of her work is confidential in nature but notable recent publishable matters include Hurricane, PCF Bank and the LFS/Woodford scheme. Luci is recognised as a NextGen partner and key lawyer in the Legal 500: Corporate Restructuring and Insolvency. She co-chairs of the Board of the London network of IWRC.
John Lee, partner, Travers Smith
John is a partner in Travers Smith’s Dispute Resolution Department, whose practice encompasses a broad range of complex commercial disputes, with a focus on financial disputes, particularly in the banking and finance, capital markets, and derivatives and structured products space, and more recently, disputes relating to cryptoassets and smart contracts.
His articles on cryptoassets and smart contracts have been published in, amongst others, Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, and he has been invited to speak on several panels on those topics, including at London International Dispute Week, IDAC and AIJA.
John’s experience includes acting for several investment banks, other financial institutions and corporates in banking and finance disputes and other contractual disputes arising out of the close-out of the 1992 and 2002 ISDA Master Agreements and other derivatives master agreements in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis.
He also has significant professional negligence experience and his other strengths lie in post-M&A/shareholder disputes, arbitration and business and human rights.
Joseph Wren, partner, Travers Smith
Joseph is a partner in the Derivatives and Structured Products group. He is ranked by The Legal 500 for his advice to funds, investment and asset managers, banks, corporates and pension schemes.
His practice includes advising on interest rate, FX, credit, equity, inflation, and commodity transactions, as well as on custody, clearing and collateral management arrangements (CSA/CSD including for VM and IM). He advises on the ISDA, GMRA and GMSLA as well as fully bespoke documentation and on the impact of related regulation including EMIR and SFTR.
Joseph is recognised for his expertise advising alternative investment managers and trustees of pension schemes. For managers, this includes fund structuring, deal contingent transactions, and regulatory optimisation. For pension schemes, this includes risk transfer/buy-in/buy-out, investment management and covenant, including asset-backed contribution (ABC/PFP) structures, guarantees and escrow arrangements.
Joseph has written for LexisNexis, International Financial Law Review, Private Equity News, the Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, and Global Legal Insights. Joseph is a member of several ISDA, FIA and Invest Europe working groups.
Alex Tinawi, director, Alvarez & Marsal
Alex is a Director with Alvarez & Marsal’s Capital Markets practice in London. Specialising in strategy, financial performance and risk management, he brings more than 14 years of industry and consulting experience leading strategic programs for banks, broker dealers, insurance companies and wealth and asset managers.
Prior to joining Alvarez & Marsal, Alex held the role as International Financial Risk COO within Bank of America, where he was responsible for designing and delivering key strategic programs across the department’s global operations. Alex also led the oversight of Financial Risk within Bank of America, working in a global team to protect and optimise the financial resources of the institution.
Alex also held the role as Senior Manager at PwC, leading a team of risk consultants in supporting clients strengthen all aspects of their risk framework. This included development of measurement methodologies and undertaking portfolio/single exposure assessments and responding to regulatory requirements. He previously served as a Manager with Barclays’ Group Wholesale Credit Risk team, responsible for the oversight of wholesale credit risk across all corporate and investment banking businesses. He undertook conformance reviews of numerous portfolios globally and managed the roll-out of bank’s internal and third-party rating systems.
Alex earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and law from the University of Brighton.
James Lewindon, head of financial services, Flex Legal
James leads the financial services and strategic partnerships division in Flex Legal. Prior to joining Flex Legal in October 2023, he was a Partner in Eversheds Sutherland’s ALSP, Konexo. He joined Eversheds in 2011, launched its interim resourcing business and scaled it across UK, APAC and US. He has delivered strategic consulting projects for global FS teams including managing Dodd Frank, IRHP, PPI, GDPR, Brexit, UK bank ring-fencing and also legal technology implementation for a global tech company across seven jurisdictions. He has also managed the implementation of flexible resource strategies for a number of global law firms.
Alex Ryan, reporter, Legal Business