Partner Alex Melia's practice focuses on international financial crime compliance, investigations and enforcement defense related to the UK Bribery Act, other countries' anti-corruption laws, UK sanctions and export controls and anti-money laundering legislation. She regularly conducts internal investigations, financial crime compliance audits and risk assessments for clients operating in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe across a wide range of industries, including financial services, manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and technology. Alex also defends clients in investigations and enforcement actions brought by the UK's Serious Fraud Office, Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Conduct Authority and other law enforcement and regulatory agencies. Alex has significant experience in advising clients on the design, implementation and evaluation of global compliance programs. She also helps clients develop effective financial crime compliance strategies, including establishing internal policies and procedures. Alex has extensive experience in conducting pre-investment financial crime due diligence and devising post-investment compliance integration plans for asset managers and private equity firms investing in high-risk sectors and countries as well as for companies as part of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and other strategic transactions. Alex gained valuable in-house experience during a year-long client secondment acting in the capacity of a de-facto Chief Compliance Officer for an oilfield services company. Alex's responsibilities included devising practical, business-focused solutions to a range of strategic and tactical compliance issues in a number of high-risk markets.
Steptoe UK LLP
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Lawyers
Andrew Miles advises on all aspects of commercial property, including the acquisition and disposal of investment properties and landlord and tenant estate management work. Andrew has experience in acting for developers, institutional landlords, large scale tenants, and charities.
PartnerChristophe Bondy has more than 20 years of experience as an investment treaty counsel, and his work includes taking a leading role in some of the highest profile cases yet decided in investment treaty arbitration. Through his work as lead counsel to Canada in multiple NAFTA Chapter Eleven arbitrations and as private sector counsel to multiple sovereigns and private claimants, he has addressed and considered in depth virtually all procedural and substantive issues arising in international investment law both from the state and the investor perspective. His cases have made a substantial contribution to the development of international law in this field. In addition to his busy counsel practice, Christophe sits as an arbitrator in investment treaty cases. Christophe also has deep experience as counsel in the negotiation of international trade and investment agreements. He was senior counsel to Canada in the negotiation of the Canada – European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), with particular emphasis on services and investment chapters. He has negotiated treaties with countries around the world and advised States on both strategic and compliance issues, up to the highest levels of government, and provides capacity building and advisory services to States around the world. Christophe has extensive experience as counsel in international commercial arbitrations under all major rules, as well as in advisory work on multiple aspects of public international law, including the law of state responsibility, sovereign and diplomatic immunities, and international intellectual property law.
Partner Jonathon Egerton-Peters acts as an advocate and provides strategic advice in high-stakes, complex and international disputes for many of the world's leading corporations, investors, entrepreneurs and sovereign states. Jonathon acts as counsel in international arbitrations; litigation across numerous jurisdictions (including the UK, US, Cayman Islands, Bermuda and British Virgin Islands); tax controversies and disputes; contentious restructuring; and competition investigations and related follow-on litigation. His experience spans a significant range of industry sectors, including finance and banking, energy, shipping, retail, real estate, airline, tobacco, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications. Jonathon is consistently recognized as a leading practitioner through legal awards and listings in legal directories. Who's Who Legal notes that he is renowned for his "extremely high professional standards" and as a "great collaborator" who "demonstrates a keen and crystal-clear expression of the issues." In 2021, he was nominated by external counsel and subsequently announced as the sole winner of the Lexology Client Choice Award for Litigation in the United Kingdom. He is recommended by The Legal 500 UK for his work in international arbitration and premium commercial litigation. He is a recognized Rising Star for premium commercial litigation (The Legal 500) and ranked as a Future Leader in litigation (Who's Who Legal). Recently, Jonathon was profiled as one of 10 Future Stars for Financier Worldwide's inaugural listing of Power Players in complex disputes. Jonathon is co-editor of Arbitration World (published by Sweet & Maxwell), one of the leading texts in international arbitration, and he writes and lectures frequently on a range of legal topics. He is a former tutor in contract law and the English legal system at King’s College, London and Queen Mary, University of London. Jonathon assists with numerous pro bono projects each year. At present, he acts as an advocate for the Family Court Help Desk, an organization that provides assistance to individuals in family law disputes who lack legal representation.
Partner Juliya Arbisman has a broad international law practice with a focus on complex jurisdictions (Middle East and Africa, and CIS), complex industries (mining), and complex claims (parallel criminal-civil proceedings). Juliya is experienced in serving as lead counsel in international arbitrations under the LCIA, ICC, ICDR, SCC, SIAC, Swiss Chamber, PCA, ICSID and ad hoc rules. She represents clients in a number of court-based applications regarding arbitration (in the UK and elsewhere), including injunctions, set-aside claims, and enforcement proceedings. Juliya has particular experience in mining sector cases involving both public and private projects that ranged in value from $100m to $7bn in many EMEA locations. Juliya holds a Non-Executive Director position in a mining advisory firm in London. Juliya also has substantial experience on protection of property and fair process cases in international and regional courts in Africa and Americas. She acts as overseas counsel to support legal claims from Commonwealth jurisdictions, including at the Privy Council. These claims have ranged from judicial review over energy regulation, judicial review over declaration of marine protection area that had excluded an aboriginal population in the Indian Ocean, habeas corpus and other submissions invoking diplomatic and consular law.
PartnerLeigh Mallon represents leading corporate clients and institutions in high-value, complex commercial litigation and international arbitration matters, as well as in a broad range of regulatory matters including competition and antitrust investigations; white collar crime and enforcement; special investigations; and compliance monitoring. Leigh's work frequently involves the coordination of multiple proceedings, arbitrations and investigations across a number of jurisdictions. Leigh's commercial litigation matters commonly involve breaches of fiduciary duties, professional negligence and shareholder claims. He conducts arbitration proceedings under the rules of the leading international arbitration institutions, including the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC). Leigh also frequently advises on the enforcement of arbitral awards in foreign jurisdictions and the New York Convention. Leigh's regulatory work includes acting for clients in matters concerning white-collar crime and enforcement. He conducts special investigations, compliance audits and compliance monitoring work for national and multinational companies to assist in the detection and elimination of potentially unlawful conduct as well as evaluating the strength of company policies and procedures. He also assists clients with respect to dawn raids by finance, competition and corruption regulators. During his career Leigh has previously been seconded to a large investment bank where he worked across their London and New York offices and advised on corporate and investment banking litigation and arbitration matters, as well as internal regulatory and compliance investigations.
PartnerMichael Thompson focuses on transactions involving M&A, joint ventures, private equity, venture capital, start-ups, public listings, corporate governance, duties of directors, reorganizations, insolvency issues for directors, and acquiring assets from administrators. His cross-border experience includes transactions conducted in the US, Asia and Europe. His sector experience includes technology, telecoms, IT, retail, real estate, mining, insurance and leisure.
PartnerSimon Collis advises on all aspects of commercial real estate for a UK and internationalclient base. His practice has an emphasis on acquisition and disposal of investmentassets, the complete life cycle of development projects, and landlord and tenant leaseholdwork. He also has a wide experience of corporate real estate and real estate finance andregularly advises on real estate led corporate transactions.Simon has experience acting for major institutional pension funds and investment arms,family wealth offices, private and large scale developers, data centers, entrepreneurs, andlarge scale commercial tenants and has looked after the UK property interests ofmultinational organizations.
Partner Thomas advises and conducts advocacy on a wide range of international and commercial disputes. Most notably, he acts as counsel in investment treaty disputes between states and foreign investors, including matters at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) and under other arbitration rules. Thomas has been ranked from 2019-2022 as an "Associate to Watch" for International Arbitration by Chambers UK which has described him as an "incredibly smart and capable" lawyer who "is impressive in presentations at hearings and is amazing in the cross-examination of expert and fact witnesses." He has also been listed as a "Rising Star" for Public International Law by The Legal 500 UK from 2021-2022.
Zachary Song is experienced in conducting international arbitrations and advising on disputes in the construction sectors, as well as general commercial arbitrations. Zachary is a New York-qualified lawyer who lived in New York, Singapore, Seoul, and Bangkok. He has a proven track record of representing Asian and international clients before international arbitral institutions globally, including the LCIA, SIAC, ICDR, ICC, SCC, as well as ad hoc tribunals. Zachary particularly has experience in the construction sector and helps clients in their disputes from the beginning stages of a project with contract administration and onwards to issues such as delay, project management and joint venture related problems and other claims arising out of construction projects. Zachary works very closely with his clients to advise on difficult negotiations with owners, subcontractors and other counterparties. He acutely understands the commercial and on-site realities of his clients when advising on legal positions to be taken against the particular counterparty. Zachary is a member of the Society of Construction Law (Singapore) and a registered panel arbitrator of the Thailand Arbitration Center, Xi'An Arbitration Commission and Member of CIArb. He is also a panel lawyer for the Ministry of Law of South Korea regarding Singapore matters. As a committee member and advisor to the Korean Association in Singapore, Zachary assists the Korean community in Singapore on a pro bono basis.
PartnerZoe Osborne's practice focuses on cross-border financial crime and contentious regulatory investigations and litigation. She has represented numerous clients in investigations by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Financial Conduct Authority, as well as in internal investigations, and investigations and defense work before other agencies and regulators in the UK and worldwide. Zoe has a breadth of experience across sectors, jurisdictions and enforcement agencies, and is regularly involved in advising on crisis management issues, including cyber security. Clients have sought Zoe's advice and counsel in matters involving allegations of bribery, fraud, money laundering, and other financial crimes. Most recently, she advised the Board of Serco in connection with a criminal investigation by the SFO into allegations of fraud and false accounting and negotiated only the fifth Deferred Prosecution Agreement in the UK. Supplementing her deep skillfulness in investigations, Zoe brings a wealth of financial services contentious regulatory and compliance experience gained during secondments with Citigroup and Barclays and while in private practice. She has represented institutions and individuals in relation to regulatory issues including market abuse, systems and controls failings, and breaches of regulatory requirements. She also has undertaken investigations for financial institutions involving the wholesale foreign exchange market, credit default swaps, government bonds and sovereigns, supranationals, and agencies bonds (SSAs).