DLA Piper makes senior hire to its London Corporate Crime and Investigations team

DLA Piper has appointed Andrew Sackey to its Corporate Crime and Investigations (CCI) team in London. The CCI team, led by Laura Ford, sits within the firm’s Litigation and Regulatory practice.

Andrew joins from Pinsent Masons where he was Head of the firm’s Global Investigations practice and, more recently, Head of Office for London. His past experience also includes working in senior legal and operational roles within the UK’s HMRC and Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

Andrew’s practice is primarily focused on large scale, domestic and international bribery, fraud, tax evasion and money laundering investigations. He joins at a time of expected heightened activity in this area as a new Director takes the helm at the SFO and significant new “failure to prevent” legislation comes into force.

In addition, Andrew’s previous experience as Head of Corporate and Offshore criminal investigations at HMRC adds a level of insight which is a unique and compelling cross practice element to his role. During his operational career at HMRC, Andrew led over 500 investigators and his responsibilities included the Panama Papers and significant corporate investigations. He was also a senior contributor to the J5, the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement, which works to combat international tax crime and money laundering.

More recently, and since being in private practice, Andrew’s skills have also extended to becoming the lead point of contact for corporate clients faced with cyber security incidents, specifically deploying his experience in delivering crisis response protocols and negotiating with threat actors.

Commenting on the appointment, Laura Ford said: “Andrew is a fantastic hire for the firm, bringing with him a unique blend of experience from HMRC, SFO and private practice. We anticipate Andrew leveraging this experience to make a significant contribution to our Global Investigations practice as well as building on our contentious tax offering alongside our UK Head of Tax, Jason Collins. As a firm we provide seamless counsel and business advice across all of our geographies and Andrew will bring added and distinct credibility to our cross-jurisdictional support to our international clients in an area where they expect assured and experienced responses.”