Norton Rose Fulbright named Regulatory and Investigations Team of the Year

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has been awarded ‘Regulatory and Investigations Team of the Year’ at the annual British Legal Awards. The Awards, hosted by Legal Week, celebrate achievement, excellence and innovation in the legal profession. The awards were judged by a 17-strong senior independent judging panel that included City of London Law Society chair Edward Sparrow and senior in-house counsel at leading financial institutions and corporates, among others.

The Regulatory and Investigations Team of the Year award recognises the firm’s successful defence of a senior banking executive in multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil proceedings arising out of the JP Morgan “London Whale” case, which included investigations and proceedings brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and extradition proceedings in Spain.

Following over five years of investigations and proceedings in the United States and Europe, the DOJ and the SEC dismissed all criminal charges and civil claims against the firm’s client, Javier Martin-Artajo, a former senior executive at JP Morgan. Similarly, the FCA took no enforcement action against our client in the UK. The allegations related to events in 2012 in connection with what has been referred to in the press as the “London Whale” trading losses.

The U.S. government’s decision, which came following four years of civil proceedings involving the disclosure of millions of pages of documents, depositions of over 35 fact witnesses in the U.S. and Europe, and the government carefully analysing the evidence, completely vindicated Mr Martin-Artajo’s position and reflects the strength of his defence which he has consistently maintained from the outset of this matter in 2012.

An integrated, cross-border team was led by partner Lista Cannon (London) and partner David Harris (London) and partner Bill Leone (New York) and senior counsel Felice Galant (New York), of the firm’s global regulation and investigations practice, and included significant input from the firm’s investigations and enforcement lawyers in London, New York and Washington, D.C.

The firm’s representation of Mr Martin-Artajo demonstrates the depth and strength of the firm’s cross-border investigations and enforcement capabilities in advising senior executives, financial institutions and corporates, with experience in the key financial and regulatory centres of London, New York and Washington, D.C.

The Norton Rose Fulbright global investigations team provides clients with a connected international service to help navigate the legal, procedural, governance and reputational aspects of regulatory and compliance issues, investigations and litigation worldwide. The firm’s lawyers offer extensive domestic, international and cross-border experience in regulation and investigations across a number of key industry sectors including financial institutions; energy; infrastructure, mining and commodities; transport; technology and innovation; and life sciences and healthcare.

The team was also named ‘Investigations Team of the Year’ at the American Lawyer Transatlantic Legal Awards for its work across the firm’s New York and London offices and ‘Highly Commended’ in the disputes category at the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Europe awards, both held this summer. At the Financial Times awards, Lista Cannon was personally commended for her leading role on the case.

The firm’s global investigations team has enjoyed a successful year overall, including the following accolades:

• Chambers Asia Pacific 2018 – Tier 1, Corporate Investigations/Anti-Corruption (Singapore) with Wilson Ang listed as a tier 1 practitioner
• Chambers Global 2018 – Tier 1, Corporate Investigations (UAE) with Orlando Vidal listed as a tier 1 practitioner
• Chambers Europe 2018 – Tier 1, Corporate Compliance & Investigations (France) with Christian Dargham listed as a tier 1 practitioner
• Global Investigation Review – ranked in the prestigious GIR30 list of the world’s preeminent investigations practices
• Global Investigations Review: Top 100 Women in Investigations – Ruth Cowley and Pamela Reddy listed
• Legal 500 UK 2018 – Tier 1, Risk advisory: regulatory investigations and corporate crime with Lista Cannon listed as a leading individual and David Harris ranked as a ‘next generation’ lawyer
• Legal 500 UK 2018 – Tier 1, White Collar Crime with Neil O’May listed as a Hall of Fame practitioner
• Transatlantic Legal Awards 2018 – named Investigations Team of the Year for work across the firm’s New York and London offices

For further information please contact:

Louise Nelson, Senior PR Manager
Tel: +44 20 7444 5086; Mob: +44 7909 684 893
louise.nelson@nortonrosefulbright.com

Notes for editors:

Norton Rose Fulbright 

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global law firm providing the world’s preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service. The firm has more than 4,000 lawyers and other legal staff based in Europe, the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East.

Recognized for its industry focus, Norton Rose Fulbright is strong across all the key industry sectors: financial institutions; energy; infrastructure, mining and commodities; transport; technology and innovation; and life sciences and healthcare. Through its global risk advisory group, the firm leverages its industry experience with its knowledge of legal, regulatory, compliance and governance issues to provide clients with practical solutions to the legal and regulatory risks facing their businesses.

Norton Rose Fulbright operates in accordance with its global business principles of quality, unity and integrity, aiming to provide the highest possible standard of legal service in each of its offices and to maintain that level of quality at every point of contact.

Norton Rose Fulbright Verein, a Swiss verein, helps coordinate the activities of Norton Rose Fulbright members but does not itself provide legal services to clients. Norton Rose Fulbright has offices in more than 50 cities worldwide, including London, Houston, New York, Toronto, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney and Johannesburg. For more information, see nortonrosefulbright.com/legal-notices.