At a gathering of top white-collar defence lawyers this year, one issue was in the forefront: with America stepping back as the world’s enforcer of corporate behaviour, who will pick up the slack?
Lawyers from Brazil to the Netherlands attending the annual American Bar Association conference in San Diego this March discussed their domestic prosecutors’ efforts and rated their national agencies.
The Brazilian and Dutch advocates gave their countries an eight. France scored a five. “I’m going to put it at about a three,” said Neil Swift, a London lawyer, referring to Britain’s Serious Fraud Office. “It’s a disappointing state of affairs in the UK at the moment.”