Barry Vitou Email & Phone Number

I lead HFW’s Global White Collar, Investigations and Compliance team. I’ve been involved in many of the major corporate investigations conducted by various law enforcement agencies in the UK and beyond working with global teams. I cut my teeth in Russia. My work concerning suspected ethical and other misconduct ranges from staples such as bribery, fraud and insider trading through to ESG concerns.I am recognised in various directories as a leader in my field and have been called upon by law enforcement and law makers about challenges and prospective changes. I have an excellent track record of successfully defending clients pre-charge resulting in no action being taken.I have taken the UK Serious Fraud Office to the UK's highest appellate court, the Supreme Court, and won a 5-0 victory curtailing the SFO's attempt compel material held overseas. Subsequently the investigation into my client was shut down.I have conducted numerous internal investigations around the world for Boards and Audit Committees with root cause analysis and recommendations/fixes to minimise the risk of repeating mistakes.I often advise where there is media interest and counsel clients on pre and post publication approaches against a backdrop of potential and actual adverse media.In all this I aim to be as cost efficient as possible and to keep the legal costs in dealing with these important problems reasonable.Unusually, for a contentious white collar/investigations partner I trained and practiced in corporate law for many years and led numerous international M&A mandates, investments, international IPO's and other commercial transactions. I have strong corporate/cultural insight as a result and a track record of resolving matters without people becoming entrenched. Against my successful track record of resolving the most difficult regulatory/criminal disputes for my clients, I am often asked to resolve other difficult disputes. I have successfully resolved many disputes including where others have failed ranging from complex long running HNW family disputes to entrenched business disputes. I wrote the leading blog on the Bribery Act for many years and have been named Lawyer of the Week in the Times.I post on here about legal developments around things that matter both prevention and cure and occasionally other topics of legal interest. By popular demand Bertie, my dog, occasionally features - he is the real star of the show.

Listed skills include Corporate Law, Criminal Law, Due Diligence, Corporate Governance, and 4 others.