Tom Epps

Tom is a partner on Cooley’s white collar defense and investigations team. He has been involved in many of the UK’s largest and most complex fraud investigations and prosecutions over the last 20 years.

Tom has substantial experience representing those managing investigations brought by all the major UK enforcement agencies and regulators, particularly with international situations. He has advised clients in the majority of the Serious Fraud Office’s most high-profile investigations, nearly all of which have involved substantial international dimensions.

Chambers & Partners UK ranks Tom in the top band for his representation of both individuals and high net worth individuals in financial crime investigations. Sources state, ‘He is a real star. He is extremely wise, a strategic thinker, and he has a lot of experience in his practice areas’. One interviewee said, ‘He is excellent at cross-border issues and has good international expertise. He is very responsive and very discreet, which is incredibly important. He’s also very easy to deal with’. Another interviewee described him as ‘a brainbox on the financial crime circuit’.

Additionally, Tom is named by Who’s Who Legal as a thought leader for global investigations and as a global leader for business crime defence (corporates and individuals) and for asset recovery. The Legal 500 UK says Tom ‘pours his heart and soul into his cases and achieves fantastic results’, and sources describe him as ‘ ... an outstanding strategist with a very great intellect’ and ‘ … a very experienced and resourceful lawyer with a particularly amiable and calm approach to complex issues’.

Tom’s representative experience includes:

• Advising clients in the most high-profile investigations of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) – including those into British American Tobacco, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), G4S/Serco, Petrofac, Rolls-Royce and Tesco
• Advising a transportation company senior executive in relation to a SFO investigation into allegations of cross-border corruption
• Advising a UK pharmaceutical supply company in relation to a US investigation into fraud offences
• Advising a senior executive at a multinational energy and aerospace company in relation to alleged overseas corruption in a number of jurisdictions
• Advising a partner of an offshore law firm regarding a request for evidence by an overseas anti-corruption investigative agency
• Advising a senior executive in relation to a US/UK investigation into alleged bribery in the United Arab Emirates
• Advising a number of senior individuals in relation to corporate manslaughter and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigations
• Advising a banking executive in relation to the Libor investigation by the SFO and regulatory authorities
• Advising a senior trader in relation to the Forex (FX) investigation across numerous jurisdictions

Publications and speaking engagements

• Recommended in, Who’s Who Legal (WWL) Thought Leaders: Global Investigations Review (GIR), 2023
• Speaker, ‘The Role of the GC in Crisis Management’, General Counsel Strategy Summit, May 2023
• Co-author, UK chapter of the American Bar Association (ABA) International Guide to Corporate Internal Investigations, November 2022
• Co-author, ‘KBR v. SFO: Implications for Overseas Document Production’, Anti-Corruption Report, March 2021
• Co-author, ‘Fines, Disgorgement, Injunctions, Debarment: The UK Perspective’, chapter in The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations, Fifth Edition, GIR, March 2021
• Speaker and panelist, Financial Crime and Global Investigations, London International Disputes Week, May 2019
• Co-author, Chambers & Partners Anti-Corruption Law and Practice Guide 2019, Chambers & Partners, December 2018
• Co-author, Extraterritoriality (UK Perspective), GIR Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations, December 2018
• Speaker, Deferred Prosecution Agreements, Financial Investigations Litigation Conference, October 2018
• Speaker, Presentation on interaction of individuals and company interests in corporate crime investigations, European Banking Enforcement Forum, September 2018
• Chair, Expert panel at the Law Society Seminar on Artificial Intelligence and Corporate Crime Investigations, September 2018
• Co-author, ‘Technology Forensics in Fraud Investigations and Disputes’, Corporate Disputes Magazine, April – June 2018