FIRE Summer School: The Ultimate Insider’s Guide

Steven Haynes is a Director at Greyhawk and has 25 years of investigations experience.

He provides evidence and intelligence to law firms and their clients in complex, high-value and cross border disputes. He has extensive experience of identifying the assets of personal, corporate and sovereign debtors.

His clients include judgement creditors, banks, state asset resolution agencies, deposit insurance agencies and arbitral award holders.

At Greyhawk, he manages multilingual teams engaged on international disputes; these typically combine a range of investigative approaches, including collection of human intelligence, surveillance, interviewing, analysis of public records, and the use of specialist tools to extract information from the deep web and social media.

Greyhawk operates globally, with noted expertise in Europe, the CIS, the Middle East and Africa. The firm’s asset tracing engagements frequently include analysis of structures in offshore jurisdictions. Steven joined the investigations sector in 1997 after a career as a news reporter.

Sarah is a Senior Associate in our Litigation & Dispute Resolution Department and holds a Bachelor of Civil Law (European Legal Studies) from University College Dublin, a Diploma in Legal French and a Diploma in Commercial Litigation from the Law Society of Ireland. She also holds an Advanced Diploma in Corporate, White Collar and Regulatory Crime from the Honorable Society of King’s Inns. 

According to The Legal 500 2020, "Senior associate Sarah Twohig has a superb grasp of the issues and first-class organisational capacity in complex litigation. Entirely reliable execution of complex instructions in preparing complex trials."

Stephen is a partner in the litigation and arbitration team and leads the global fraud team.

His practice focusses on international asset freezing and recovery cases, heavyweight commercial litigation and regulatory disputes and Stephen is particularly adept at drawing on the firm’s tax expertise in such cases to obtain a strategic advantage.

Stephen also often acts for family offices, successful families, entrepreneurs and their businesses on a broad range of commercial disputes and heads up our family office first group, which is an innovative approach to finding positive solutions for family conflicts.

Stephen regularly speaks at national and international conferences on a wide range of fraud and litigation topics.

Stephen is described by Chambers and Partners 2020 as a ‘superb lawyer’ and ‘‘an incredibly shrewd judge of the tactics of a case’.

As an associate in the London office, Rebecca Newell has worked on a range of commercial litigation disputes.

Her focus lies in civil fraud proceedings, which are high-value, multi-jurisdictional and complex in nature. She has particular experience of representing clients based in the CIS region.

Rosie has a wide range of experience of high value litigation and arbitration cases.  She has particular experience in civil fraud, shareholder disputes including unfair prejudice petitions, and issues of contractual interpretation.

Rosie has worked on a number of high profile cases, including a global business email compromise fraud in which CYK obtained England’s first worldwide freezing injunction of assets of ‘persons unknown’.

Rosie has been involved on a number of ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, HKIAC and SIAC arbitrations and has experience of commercial arbitrations, particularly in the oil and gas sector, as well as a number of investment treaty arbitrations. Rosie also has significant experience dealing with financial complex products and has spent time on secondment to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA).

Syed's great depth of experience in serious fraud, financial crime and multi-jurisdictional investigations has earmarked him as a robust solicitor. He is proficient in both civil and criminal cases, where there is an allegation of corporate wrongdoing. Syed has substantial experience in advising corporate entities and their directors and officers in relation to investigations conducted by all the major enforcement agencies. He has also built an impressive reputation in the field of asset-tracing and recovery, with a respected track record regarding international disputes where urgent relief is required involving freezing orders and recovering misappropriated assets.

Syed is recognised for his sector-leading, pioneering cryptocurrency work, having secured a number of significant legal firsts when representing institutions and individuals. His specialist expertise in civil recovery proceedings under Part 5 of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) has also led to him recording notable successes for clients in national and international cases.

Syed has a dynamic practice involving complex sanctions issues and related litigation. He has notable cases in this area, including representation of public limited companies (PLC’s) trading on the London Stock Exchange in relation to international sanctions on Russia, public joint-stock companies (PJSC’s) trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange regarding UK and EU sanctions on Russia and a major Russian power engineering company headquartered in St Petersburg relating to international sanctions advice. Syed regularly prepares licence applications to release frozen funds or economic resources for designated persons and entities. He is also adept at challenging sanctions designations.

He is known for his abilities in multijurisdictional, worldwide asset recovery cases – including obtaining and defending the full range of injunctions - high-stakes commercial and financial disputes and cross-border investigations involving attacks on clients’ interests by numerous governments or agencies. His skill in defending high-profile corruption, fraud and regulatory allegations and his ability to negotiate with investigators have ensured his clients receive the strongest representation.

The Chambers UK Guide regularly ranks Syed as an elite solicitor. It has called him “a very technically gifted lawyer’’ and has said he “gets on top of all the facts in complex cases’’. Chambers has described him as “very committed to the work he does’’ and said he “leaves no stone unturned and has a passion for what he does’’. It has repeatedly highlighted his expertise in POCA work and asset recovery proceedings. The 2023 edition of Chambers praises his ability to “forge ground in fast-developing areas’’ and his cryptocurrency case skills.

Syed’s clients include corporates and their directors, financial institutions, hedge funds, high net worth individuals and international private clients around the world. Syed has a particular interest in litigation arising from mergers and acquisitions, derivatives and securities offerings (IPO’s, SPAC IPO’s and debt offerings) and works with private equity funds and private sponsors for public companies.

He is adept at advising corporate entities and their directors and officers on their regulatory and compliance obligations and in investigations conducted by agencies such as the Serious Fraud Office, Financial Conduct Authority, National Crime Agency and HM Revenue & Customs. His ability to assess complex issues, establish the facts and analyse challenging sets of circumstances have seen him excel on internal investigations carried out for Rahman Ravelli’s corporate clients.

Syed routinely advises clients in FCA investigations into alleged market abuse, breaches of regulated activities and unauthorised trading. He is sought by asset management firms and chief investment officers at hedge funds facing enforcement proceedings and financial services litigation.

The Legal 500 has called Syed “a creative thinker’’, “a master of detail’’ and someone who “entirely devotes himself to his cases’’. It has drawn attention to the wide variety of global corporate wrongdoing and multi-jurisdictional bribery and corruption investigations he has worked on. It has praised his “incredible depth of experience when it comes to fraud matters, and in particular those with an international element or where the National Crime Agency are involved.’’ The 2023 edition calls him “one of the most well-respected names’’ in the legal world and emphasises his abilities in emerging areas such as SPACs and cryptocurrency fraud.

Syed is also in demand to work on cases where there is the possibility of securing a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) for clients. The Legal 500 has noted Rahman Ravelli’s expertise in advising on DPAs and recognised that Syed “goes the extra mile to get the best results for his clients in leading on a multi-jurisdictional matter concerning this area”.

His recent work has involved global energy sector corruption allegations, major financial services cases, fintech companies and many of the most complex worldwide asset recovery cases.

Alexandra Campbell is a commercial disputes lawyer advising clients on a range of matters, in particular civil fraud, injunctive proceedings, professional negligence, contractual disputes, and enforcement actions.

Alexandra works for both high-net-worth individuals and corporates and provides clear advice under pressure to best protect her clients' interests.

She has a particular focus on financial services and civil fraud litigation. She acts regularly in multi-party and high-value proceedings and works closely with our specialist Business Crime team.

Throughout the litigation process, she ensures clients are fully informed about the steps, the risks, and the options available to them.

To provide full support to her clients, Alexandra has developed a close network of professional advisers who can give expert assistance beyond just legal advice on a range of different areas.

Elizabeth Fox has experience as a commercial litigator with a focus on civil fraud and contentious insolvency often as part of complex multi-jurisdictional disputes. She handles matters involving allegations of fraud or misconduct including diversion of business opportunities, secret commissions, bribery, conspiracy, data theft, misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of confidence, and/or breach of contract.

Elizabeth represents a wide range of clients including high net-worth individuals and many of her cases are international in scope. Her experience includes injunctive relief on both the claimant and defendant side such as search orders; freezing and asset preservation orders; delivery-up orders; computer imaging orders; third Party disclosure orders; and other asset recovery techniques. She has been identified by Chambers UK Guide as Up and Coming in the Fraud: Civil category. Chambers UK Guide 2023 also refers to Elizabeth as “a master of detail” and “simply fantastic. She understands the most complex situations very quickly, and incorporates the legal and procedural principles of other jurisdictions into her analysis with disconcerting ease”, whilst the Legal 500 UK 2023 refers to Elizabeth as “a strong and effective presence on any team.”

Chris is a senior associate at RPC. Chris advises on a broad range of commercial disputes with emphasis on high value civil fraud, banking and financial services disputes (including with derivative products and the close-out of complex financial transactions), shareholder disputes and crypto disputes. Chris is also a founding member of the Crypto Fraud and Asset Recovery 'CFAAR' network, sitting on its committee.

Chris has authored numerous thought leadership pieces on the application of game theory to litigation settlement and has developed software tools to analyse the settlement landscape in disputes.

Lynn is a Legal Director within the Disputes Resolution practice with a specialism in Civil Fraud. Lynn also heads the China Business Team and assists a number of clients across Hong Kong and China, utilising her mandarin language skills and knowledge of local business practices. 

Lynn acts on a number of high-value, complex litigations and arbitrations and has a broad commercial practice advising both claimants and defendants. Lynn’s cases are often of general public interest and she is often instructed to assist with guiding the direction of public relations. 

Lynn is ranked as a Key Lawyer in disputes resolution (mediation and international arbitration) by the Legal 500 EMEA Guide and has close, trusted relationships with clients. She is praised for her strategic thinking and practical advice, helping clients to achieve their aims effectively and efficiently. 

Examples of recent work:

• Acting for a Defendant in complex US$3 billion litigation with cross-jurisdictional satellite litigation, delivering strategic advice for England and Wales while coordinating strategic cross-jurisdictional issues.

• Advising a Claimant in an LCIA international arbitration dealing with construction delay issues for 4 strategic construction projects.

• Advising a Claimant in an LCIA arbitration in respect of a negligence claim valued at over US$10 million.  

• Acting for a high-profile claimant in relation to a circa £90million claim involving a range of financial dishonesty offences including allegations of fraud and conspiracy. This case was widely reported in national and international press and Lynn was also required to manage publicity around the litigation.

• Advising on an £80million pharmaceutical dispute, defending against allegations of breach of contract, economic duress, conspiracy and intimidation.

• Defending a group of companies against public interest winding up petitions presented by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Lynn also assisted the client companies with reputation management work, including work in defamation, after settlement.

• Acting on a £250million cross border dispute arising out of a fatal accident, defending the client against allegations of fault in respect of product liability.

• Advising on a £3 million dispute, defending against allegations of misrepresentation arising out of the sale of an unregulated investment.

• Acting on litigation arising out of professional negligence.

• Leading on an international reputation management project for a client across 8 different jurisdictions.

Lucinda has a broad commercial disputes practice with substantial experience of complex, high-value cross-border litigation and long trials. She has acted for many high net worth individuals and large institutions, in some of the most consequential trials to come before the English Courts in recent years. Lucinda is recognised by Legal 500 as a “Next Generation Partner” in Commercial Litigation: Premium, by Chambers and Partners as “Up and Coming” in Fraud: Civil, and is recognised by Who’s Who Legal as a Leading Global Fraud and Asset Recovery Lawyer. She is described in the legal directories as “an outstanding professional”; “a class act” and “smart and hugely efficient”.

Lucinda has been at the cutting edge of innovations for trial settings over the last decade – having managed the first trial with an integrated electronic trial bundle system in 2011, and also the first fully remote 12-week trial with simultaneous interpretation in 2020. Lucinda has particular expertise in disclosure-heavy cases in foreign languages and likes developing and delivering technical solutions and harnessing technology to ease the cost burden for her clients.

Lucinda has also developed an interest and specialisation in Letters of Request, principally from the US Courts. She regularly acts as the Privy Council Agent in appeals from offshore jurisdictions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Lucinda also has experience of mediation, as well as a range of other dispute resolution mechanisms, and familiarity with regulatory investigations. Through a number of pro bono matters in which she has acted, she also has judicial review experience.

Lucinda graduated from Oxford University, following undergraduate and Masters of Studies degrees, and undertook her pupillage at Quadrant Chambers. Since qualification, she has practised at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (UK) and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan UK LLP. She joined Enyo Law in 2014.

Lucinda holds a number of leadership roles within the legal profession, and sits on the Management Committee of the Bar Council of England and Wales, and previously sat on the Management Committee on her Inn of Court, where she is a Bencher. Lucinda has also been appointed by the Lord Chancellor as an Examiner of the Court pursuant to CPR 34.15, and by the Culture Secretary to the Treasure Valuation Committee, to advise on the fair market value of declared Treasure finds from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

As a practising barrister, Lucinda has full rights of audience in all higher courts in England and Wales and has the right to conduct litigation.

Ruth is involved in litigation and advisory work domestically and offshore in commercial, trusts and property matters. She has expertise and wide experience across the areas of trusts, tax litigation, company disputes, charities, insolvency and public law and often where these areas intersect. She appears frequently on these matters (led and unled) in the High Court, Tax Tribunals, Court of Appeal and Privy Council. Ruth has a strong offshore practice and in addition to her commercial chancery practice has been heavily involved in a long-running series of judicial review, contempt and constitutional proceedings in The Bahamas.

Ruth’s government work is predominantly in the areas of tax and trusts: she appeared for HMRC in the landmark Supreme Court appeals in Pitt v Holt and Futter v Futter; in a series of matters on appeal to the Court of Appeal on the application of transfer pricing rules to shareholder transactions and the meaning of ‘loss’ for corporation tax purposes; and, currently, on a series of tax appeals relating to the validity of remuneration trusts.

David Jones is an advocate and head of the restructuring and insolvency team at Carey Olsen in Guernsey. He advises on complex restructurings and formal insolvencies in contentious, non-contentious and multi-jurisdictional matters.  He has been involved in many of the largest insolvencies involving Guernsey entities and global retailers. He is able to assist lenders in respect of the taking and enforcement of all forms of security. David regularly advises the boards of distressed entities and has extensive experience acting for office holders on all aspects of their appointments including the tracing and recovery of assets.

David is a member of the Insolvency Lawyers Association and R3 and sits on the young members Committee of INSOL International. David lectures on INSOL's Foundation Certificate in International Insolvency and is part of the working group tasked with updating and revising Guernsey's insolvency laws. He has also been appointed as a member of Guernsey's first ever Insolvency Rules Committee (IRC).

Thomas accepts instructions in all of chambers’ practice areas, with a particular focus on commercial dispute resolution, construction, insolvency and professional negligence.

Prior to pupillage, Thomas worked for a Legal Tech company where he taught a machine learning programme to recognise different types of contractual terms. The programme is used by M&A lawyers at leading firms to undertake due diligence more quickly and more accurately.

He studied Law at St Anne’s College, Oxford, where he was elected JCR President and won a college prize for his performance in finals. He was awarded an advocacy scholarship and graded Outstanding on the Bar course.

Thomas is currently acting as junior counsel for the main Defendants in Skatteforvaltningen (Danish Customs and Tax Authority) v Solo Capital Partners LLP & Ors. The case is listed as one of The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases for 2024.

David Grant’s insolvency and restructuring practice focuses on insolvency and recovery actions, including cross-border asset tracing and asset and security recoveries. He has 30+ years’ experience of fraud and forensic investigations by regulators and enforcement agencies.

Dual-qualified in England and New South Wales, Australia, he advises insolvency practitioners, banks, company directors, asset-based lenders, trade financiers, distressed debt investors and private equity concerns.

David is also London Office Managing Partner, an Executive Committee member and Regional Practice Group Leader, Europe and Asia. He has been recognised by The Legal 500 and commended by Chambers UK for being commercial, a great negotiator and a welcome sight on a case.

Richard joined the Dispute Resolution team in 2019, having previously worked at two leading civil fraud boutiques in the City.

Richard’s experience covers a broad range of commercial disputes, with a particular focus on civil fraud cases, and disputes involving shareholders, directors and partnerships. He acts for both claimants and defendants, often in complex, multi-jurisdiction and high-value claims. Richard regularly obtains a variety of interim remedies, including worldwide freezing orders, injunctions, security for costs and disclosure orders on behalf of his clients. 

Richard has successfully brought and defended various high-profile and legally significant cases, including cases before the Supreme Court, Privy Council and Court of Appeal. Notwithstanding this, Richard strives to find ways through conflict that meet his client’s objectives in an efficient and cost-effective way. Clients rely on Richard to defend their interests incisively and with vigour, while maintaining commerciality, candour and perspective. 

Will is a Senior Associate in the dispute resolution team at Fladgate. He advises on a broad range of commercial disputes with a particular focus on civil fraud, insolvency, and partnership and joint venture disputes. He acts in high value, complex, multi-jurisdictional proceedings for a wide range of clients, including high net worth individuals and corporate entities. He has experience of applications for injunctive relief, including freezing injunctions, for both claimants and defendants, as well as acting for claimants in funded claims, including group actions.

Abigail specialises in advising on commercial disputes for high net worth individuals and corporate clients. She advises on a range of commercial disputes including, breaches of contract, breaches of warranty, shareholder disputes, misrepresentation, civil fraud and professional negligence. Her work often has an international element and she has experience of multi-jurisdictional High Court litigation. Abigail has completed a secondment with Debenhams Retail Plc where she worked on a variety of commercial claims.

Abigail is admitted to practise in England and Wales.

Rachael is a commercial litigator who specialises in large scale, complex financial disputes and civil fraud claims. Her work usually has an international aspect and often involves working as part of a team of global advisors. Her experience includes asset tracing, forgery and enforcement issues.

Prior to joining Grosvenor Law, Rachael worked in the London office of an international law firm specialising in complex commercial litigation. During that time, she spent 9 months in the Cayman Islands representing the Plaintiff in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands’ longest ever trial and one of the largest fraud trials ever litigated worldwide.

Joe joined Greyhawk in 2021. His work has helped to inform clients' legal strategies in complex, cross-border disputes. Recent notable cases include supporting a freezing order application against Russian corporates defendants: assisting in the enforcement of a substantial arbitral award in the UAE, Europe and the CIS; and gathering evidence for one of the largest banking trials in 2023.

He is a Russian and Spanish speaker.

She has 15 years’ experience in private practice and over a decade as an offshore lawyer. She advises clients on a range of contentious matters under Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands law.

Her experience includes general commercial litigation, contentious valuation disputes, funds litigation, shareholder disputes, trust disputes, share security enforcement (including out-of-court receivership appointments) and contentious insolvency matters.

She also has particular experience in contentious insolvency proceedings, cross-border restructuring and distressed situations, including complex equity and debt restructurings, and contentious and non-contentious group reorganisation matters involving Cayman and BVI entities.

She advises high net worth individuals, insolvency practitioners, private equity funds, hedge funds, investment banks, debtor companies, directors and officers, shareholders and limited partners.

Outside of her contentious practice, Jennifer also advises clients on corporate governance, solvent wind-downs and fund closures, as well as providing support and advice to entities facing litigation or insolvency risks.

Matthew is a Partner with over 30 years’ experience working with complex businesses in high profile environments.  He is a licensed insolvency practitioner taking formal appointments and also works with businesses on financial and operational restructuring, board and stakeholder engagement and contingency and implementation planning. 

He jointly leads our Public Sector and Not for Profit restructuring team and has significant experience of high profile and sensitive engagements, working with diverse stakeholders with differing and sometimes competing objectives to deliver both solvent and insolvent solutions.

His appointments include:

• Appointed on the application of the Secretary of State for Education the first-ever Joint Education Administrator of a Further Education College (Hadlow College) under the Technical & Further Education Act 2017.
• Joint Administrator of Bell Pottinger LLP, successfully implementing an innovative creditor focused value preservation strategy in the glare of the media spotlight.
• Appointed as Administrator of GSM (London) Ltd, the largest ‘for profit’ private equity owned higher education institution (3700 students). Implementation of ‘transfer’ strategy in coordination with DfE, SLC, UCAS, OIA

Adam Kaufmann practices in the areas of white-collar crime, asset tracing and recovery, investigations, complex commercial fraud, and judgment enforcement. 

He has handled civil, criminal, and investigative matters on behalf of U.S. and international clients, both individuals and companies, throughout the world.  These include high-profile multi-jurisdictional criminal matters and complex civil matters both in the United States and through coordinated legal strategies in multiple jurisdictions.  Mr. Kaufmann is a recognized expert in international criminal law, corruption, and fraud, and has lectured on these topics in jurisdictions around the world and has testified twice before the United States Senate. 

High-profile clients facing exposure to reputational, regulatory and criminal risk have turned to Mr. Kaufmann for assistance.  He provided counsel to Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks basketball team when allegations of sexual harassment within the Mavericks organization were published in Sports Illustrated.  Mr. Kaufmann coordinated the independent investigation on behalf of the organization, communicated with NBA senior executives, and helped guide the team to a successful resolution of the matter.  Mr. Kaufmann represented Manhattan art dealer Michael Shvo who was accused of a $3.5 million tax fraud, obtaining a non-jail settlement of all charges.  He also represented former New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer when Mr. Spitzer was first blackmailed and then accused of crimes by a Russian national, ensuring that the blackmailer was prosecuted and Mr. Spitzer was exonerated.  In other criminal matters, Mr. Kaufmann represented a Long Island-based engineering company with 300+ employees charged in a bribery case in Manhattan, and obtained a deferred prosecution agreement for the company. In international matters, he has represented a number of Brazilian individuals and companies implicated in the Brazilian Lavo Jato (“Car Wash”) investigation, as well as U.S. citizens and foreign nationals charged with FCPA, corruption, and money laundering conspiracies by the U.S. Department of Justice.  Many of those matters involve the coordination of legal defenses in multiple jurisdictions working closely with foreign counsel.  In 2018, Mr. Kaufmann was selected as an expert in Business Crimes Law by Global Expert. 

Mr. Kaufmann also represents clients seeking to identify, trace, and recover stolen assets, and has brought numerous actions seeking discovery in support of foreign litigation and asset recovery pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782.  He has represented clients tracing assets all over the world, including the representation of two sovereign states of Mexico seeking to recover funds stolen by former public officials.  Mr. Kaufmann’s expertise was recognized in 2016-2020 when he was selected to Who’s Who Legal for Asset Recovery.  In civil and arbitration matters, Mr. Kaufmann has worked on numerous complex fraud and business dispute matters.  He negotiated a favorable settlement for a civil client in a civil clawback action brought by the court-appointed receiver in a multi-hundred million dollar Ponzi scheme and has counseled numerous clients on aspects of U.S. law in international arbitral matters.