Steven Francis

Steven advises on most aspects of regulation, in particular as it affects insurance businesses, banks and securities firms. He was formerly a member of the management team of the FSA's wholesale enforcement division where he worked on insider dealing and market abuse cases and rules and principles cases against large financial services institutions. Steven has experience of advising and representing clients dealing with numerous regulatory regimes: fraud, health and safety, environmental protection, money laundering, trade control, corruption. A former barrister, he often conducts his own advocacy in criminal courts and tribunals and in mediations.

Memberships

• Financial Services Lawyers Association
• Health and Safety Lawyers Association
• Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists.

Selected Directory Listings

• "always willing to think outside the box" - The Legal 500, 2012 edition

Examples of relevant work

• Worked in house at Sempra Energy (an energy and derivatives trading business) leading the project to ensure that Sempra was compliant with the MiFID Directive
• Advised one of the UK's largest firms of mortgage brokers on allegations relating to misrepresentations made to lenders to enable borrowers to secure mortgage finance
• Advised one of the UK's largest banks on the requirements for FSA authorisation on non executive directors of the bank's unregulated holding company
• Represented clients during numerous PACE and compulsion interviews and has, while at the FSA, also conducted PACE and compulsion interviews
• Represented clients facing pre-emptive enforcement action, such as dawn raids, and has managed teams of lawyers and investigators conducting dawn raids while at the FSA
• Represented one of the UK's largest construction companies in court and tribunal appearances (in Magistrates' Courts, Crown Courts and at Inquests) that concerned fatal and serious accidents at work.
• Advised a well-known UK company during its unprecedented appearance before a Parliamentary Select Committee
• Advised a sovereign government on a number of issues arising from the historic pollution of groundwater including: the recovery of anti-pollution works and operations from insurers, the possibility of government liability, the bringing of proceedings against a US chemical company and the subsequent settlement of those proceedings and the defence and settlement of a number of property damage claims
• Acted for Eastern Counties Leather plc in Cambridge Water Company v Eastern Counties Leather plc, the famous pollution case that culminated in a successful House of Lords appeal
• Undertook - mainly for US owned companies - a number of multi-jurisdictional compliance reviews and health checks so as to assure shareholders that the company is complying with all local laws and regulations
• Undertook a project for the Association of British Insurers that concerned the cost to the UK insurance industry of compliance with the UK regulations that concern the identification and remediation of contaminated land
• Wrote the AGS' legal guide to collateral warranties and third party claims
• Conducted internal investigations for clients that have concerned (or example) the apparent leaking of confidential information in a takeover situation, bribery of government officials in Africa, conflicts of interest in the procurement of facilities management services by a government agency, the timeliness of announcements to the market and the valuation of financial assets

To read our Regulatory Publications, click here.

To read our Regulatory Blog, click here.