Tom McNeill

“He gets on very well with clients and he’s a superb lawyer.”

Chambers UK

Tom McNeill specialises in regulatory/corporate crime and financial crime. His expertise includes corporate and individual manslaughter, health and safety (including coroner’s inquests), environmental protection, fire safety, all types of fraud, bribery, and money laundering.

Regulatory

Tom defends companies and individuals from regulatory investigations and prosecutions brought by the police/CPS, HSE, ORR, Local Authorities, Fire and Rescue Authorities, and Environment Agency, advising on:

• crisis management
• minimising risks in relation to corporate and director liability
• legally privileged internal investigations
• proactive engagement with investigating authorities
• responding to and appealing improvement / prohibition / enforcement notices
• responding to information requests
• interviews under caution
• defending investigations and prosecutions
• judicial review of the actions of investigating authorities

Tom has experience in a wide range of sectors, including manufacturing, construction, railways, recycling, chemicals, utilities, transport, facilities management, entertainment, leisure, real estate, waste, water industry. Tom is ranked in Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500.

Manslaughter offences / health and safety

Tom’s experience includes:

• investigations by the police/CPS, HSE, ORR, Local Authorities
• fatal and other serious accident/incident investigations and prosecutions including complex systems failures, fires and explosions, electrocutions, maintenance, mechanical, confined spaces, guarding and nips, working at height, CDM, PUWER, permits to work
• highly technical investigations including plant / equipment failures with significant expert evidence, including relating to lifts, escalators, industrial cookers, thermal oxidisers, SCADA, bearing failures, explosive atmospheres, structural engineering
• representation at Coroner’s inquests
• serious incidents, accidents and near-misses where proactive and strategic engagement with investigating authorities resulted in no further action being taken
• advising in relation to health and safety risk management with a focus on corporate and director liability

Fire safety

Tom’s experience includes:

• investigation of an organisation in relation to a multiple fatality fire in a block of flats
• successfully defending property owners, landlords, property management companies, hoteliers, and retailers in relation to investigations by Fire and Rescue Authorities
• appeal of enforcement notices and negotiated resolutions with Fire and Rescue Authorities
• defending a company in relation to alleged failures in the installation of passive fire safety equipment
• defending an individual from a police investigation in relation to the Grenfell Tower tragedy
• advising on the meaning and scope of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

Environmental protection

Tom’s experience includes:

• investigation of a water company by the Environment Agency and Ofwat in relation to serious and longstanding pollution offences
• successful defence of a company in relation to the alleged obstruction of Environment Agency Officers
• successfully defending a company and its directors from an Environment Agency investigation concerning the definition of waste and end-of-waste determinations
• successfully defending a waste company in relation to a Local Authority investigation (with Environment Agency involvement) concerning planning and alleged pollution issues
• advising in relation to the powers of Environmental Crime Officers, including compelled requests for documentation and witness interviews
• responding to stop notices (formal and informal)
• judicial review of the Environment Agency

Financial Crime

Tom defends individuals and companies from investigations and prosecutions brought by the police/CPS, SFO, NCA, City of London Police, FCA, HMRC, advising on:

• crisis management
• interviews under caution
• advising in relation to search warrants, production orders, compulsory and voluntary information requests
• corporate internal investigations in relation to fraud, bribery, and money laundering, including advising on self-reporting and corporate and director liability
• proceeds of crime
• defending investigations and prosecutions

Tom’s experience includes:

• all manner of fraud investigations and prosecutions (including fraudulent trading, MTIC, Ponzi, fraud by abuse of position, cum ex)
• proceeds of crime, including successfully defending money laundering investigations and prosecutions, suspicious activity reports, restraint, confiscation and asset recovery
• bribery and corruption investigations including advising on the failure to prevent bribery offence under section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010
• corporate internal investigations including requests for information, the privilege against self-incrimination, and self-reporting to investigating authorities
• other financial and white collar crime matters including insider dealing, market abuse, sanctions, and extradition

Career

Tom studied LLB Law at Lancaster University and completed the LPC at the College of Law, York. Tom joined BCL before qualifying as a solicitor in 2011, and became a partner in 2022.

Publications

• What are the implications of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill 2022 for corporate crime lawyers? (LexisNexis)
• ‘Economic Crime – Who Pays?’ (LexisNexis)
• ‘Corporate criminal liability reform’ (Fraud Intelligence) (with John Binns)
• ‘Getting The Deal Through – Government Investigations’ (Lexology) (with Michael Drury)
• ‘Health & safety prosecutions: individual failings’ (Reports Legal)
• ‘Company liability for safety breaches by individuals’ (Building Magazine)
• ‘Law commission proposals on corporate criminal liability’ (Reports Legal) (with John Binns)
• ‘Defending failure to prevent offences’ (with John Binns)
• ‘Petrofac and ‘SOCPA agreements’’ (Fraud Intelligence) (with Shaul Brazil)
• ‘Corporate crime and the regulatory approach’ (Lawyer Monthly)
• ‘An introduction to fire safety enforcement’ (Fire Magazine)
• ‘Cognitive bias and defending health and safety investigations’ (Health & Safety Matters)
• ‘Cum ex and the Criminal Law’ (FinCrime Report)
• ‘The age of corporate responsibility’ (WealthBriefing)
• ‘Fatal accidents and criminal liability’ (Law 360) (with Guy Bastable)
• ‘Dog-law and dishonesty’ (with Anoushka Warlow)
• ‘Criminal Finances Bill – Forfeiture of Bank Accounts?’ (with John Binns)
• ‘Are Government proposals to tackle money laundering too radical?’ (with Guy Bastable)
• ‘The International Comparative Legal Guide to Business Crime’ (Global Legal Group)
• ‘When Should Organisations Be Held Criminally Liable?’ (ICLG, Global Legal Group)
• ‘Practical Law’s Financial and Business Crime Global Guide’ (Thomson Reuters)
• End crown immunity to save lives (The Times)
• Prisoner Suicides: Why is the Prison Service Immune From Failure?

Professional Memberships

• Health & Safety Lawyers Association
• UK Environmental Lawyers Association
• Fraud Lawyers Association
• The Law Society