Neil Swift

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Partner in the Business Crime department. He has extensive and broad experience in business crime, advising individual and corporate clients in relation to investigations and prosecutions by all major UK agencies, in particular the Serious Fraud Office, the Financial Conduct Authority and HM Revenue & Customs. He specialises in serious fraud and corruption inquiries, tax inquiries, and financial services enforcement action. He frequently advises professionals and professional firms in relation to their regulatory obligations, both from a risk management perspective and in response to requests from law enforcement.  He also advises clients who are the subject of law enforcement enquiries overseas, and who are or may be the subject of Interpol notices or extradition proceedings. Much of Neil’s work involves him advising as part of multi-jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary teams of professionals.

Neil continues to advise clients in high -profile corruption cases, representing both company directors and companies in relation to enquiries being conducted by the SFO, often in conjunction with overseas law enforcement, particularly the US Department of Justice. Neil also represented a senior executive of a UK company in the parallel investigations by the US Department of Justice and Office of Fair Trading into allegations of price fixing and bid-rigging in the marine hose market, which culminated in the execution of ground-breaking plea agreement in the US, under which his client was permitted to return to the UK to plead guilty in England as part of the OFT’s first prosecution under the Enterprise Act.

Neil assisted the GC100 in their representations to the government at the committee stage of the Bribery Act. He was also a contributing author to Blackstone’s guide to the Bribery Act 2010. He is a frequent speaker, writer and commentator on fraud, corruption and money laundering.

Neil is regularly ranked in leading legal directories, described as “incredibly astute” and a “firm favourite among clients” (Who’s Who Legal 2016). In Chambers and Partners 2017, Neil is ranked in Fraud and White Collar Crime, Financial Services (Contentious), Crime: General and  VAT and Indirect Tax, with referees describing him as “experienced, confident and thoughtful”, commenting on his “ ‘excellent judgement’ to clients across a broad array of conduct issues including handling numerous matters for individuals accused of market manipulation”, and noting his “pragmatic, easily digestible input”.