England - London • Crime, fraud and licensing
Howard Kennedy LLP
Howard Kennedy LLP’s private prosecutions offering is led by Ian Ryan and combines civil and criminal law expertise to advise on high-profile prosecutions and investigations brought by regulatory agencies, such as the SFO, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Ryan offers 22 years’ experience in fraud, financial crime and regulatory matters and recently successfully prosecuted a high-profile case in the retail sector; he is supported by Kyle Phillips, who acts for both companies and individuals on fraud, bribery, corruption and money laundering issues. Jonathan Huth joined from Kobre & Kim LLP in January 2023 and at the more junior end of the team, senior associate Jennifer Harper is recommended for multi-jurisdictional white-collar crime and regulatory investigations.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'The team are experienced experts in this field.'
- 'Kyle Philips is very experienced, strategic and successful in bringing private prosecutions for clients across a broad spectrum of sectors.'
- Ian Ryan, Kyle Phillips, and Jen Harper are excellent and know this field inside out.
- The team has a proven track record in private prosecutions. It combines highly experienced partners and senior associates with enthusiastic and able junior associates to provide an efficient and responsive service given high quality advice and representation in this specialist field.'
- 'Kyle Phillips combines excellent commercial and legal judgement to provide a hands-on and pragmatic approach. Jennifer Harper - an outstanding associate who combines intelligence, diligence and judgment in equal measure. Both exude a positive and confidence-inspiring attitude which pervades their team and makes them a pleasure to work with.'
Lawyers
Rising stars
Leading Individuals
Ian Ryan is a Partner and Head of the Business Crime and Regulatory team. He is a white-collar crime lawyer specialising in serious fraud and acting in serious and high-profile matters both domestically and internationally. Ian heads the firm's well regarded Business Crime team. Ian has over 25 years' experience dealing with a full range of business crime and serious fraud investigations. This includes investigations by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Competition Markets Authority (CMA), the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). He advises on investigations from the early stages through to and including contested jury trials. His primary focus is acting for clients in SFO investigations. He is representing senior individuals in SFO investigations into Euribor, Patisserie Valerie, Amec Foster Wheeler, and ENRC (Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation). Ian successfully represented Achim Kraemer, the only defendant acquitted in the first Euribor trial in June 2018. He has previously acted on the SFO investigations into Rolls Royce, GSK, Tesco, Harlequin and represented Vincent Tchenguiz on his arrest by the SFO and subsequent search of his business premises. Ian also acts for corporates on production orders, dawn raids, confiscation proceedings, warrants and the extent of legal professional privilege. He has represented both multi-nationals and individuals in numerous internal investigations. Ian has specialist experience in solicitors' disciplinary work and SRA investigations and is skilled at representing General Counsel caught up in SFO investigations. Ian has a niche specialism in money laundering and was previously a member of the Law Society's Money Laundering Taskforce. He is a member of the Law Society's AML directory providing advice to solicitors. Ian continues to represent high-net-worth individuals (celebrities, politicians and sports people) in general criminal matters.
Next Generation Partners
Kyle Phillips is a specialist financial crime and regulatory solicitor with particular expertise advising companies and individuals on fraud, bribery, corruption and money laundering matters. Kyle has over 10 years' experience representing clients in some of the most high-profile financial crime and regulatory investigations. This includes both domestic and international investigations. Notably, he has been instructed on several high-profile financial crime investigations including Wirecard, Euribor, G4S, Serco, Amec Foster Wheeler, Harlequin and Forex. Kyle conducts internal investigations on behalf of corporates who suspect criminal wrongdoing. He provides strategic advice to clients seeking to report criminal misconduct to the authorities, and is experienced at bringing private prosecutions. He provides expert assistance to clients to take preventative financial crime measures, including implementing compliance programmes and undertaking audits of financial crime controls. Kyle is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and together with his vast experience in financial crime investigation, he is particularly skilled at providing anti-money laundering advice and assistance. He is experienced at advising clients at all stages of a criminal investigation, and continues to advise clients subject to investigation for general crime matters including drugs, assault and sexual offences. Kyle also advises individuals subject to sports regulatory investigations, including e-sports. He sits as an Anti-Discrimination Disciplinary Chair for the Football Association. He is also a committee member for the Private Prosecutors' Association and is a former chair of the Young Fraud Lawyers Association.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Ian Ryan