Charles Evans

Consulting Partner

Contact
F +44 20.7615.3100

London

100 Liverpool Street

London, UK EC2M 2AT

T +44 20.7615 3090

F +44 20.7615.3100

Charles is a consulting partner in the Litigation and Arbitration team in London and is widely regarded as a leading practitioner in the UK. His practice covers a broad range of financial services disputes and he enjoys a market leading reputation and practice in investigations and regulatory enforcement proceedings.  He is consistently highly rated for both banking litigation and contentious regulatory work by the legal directories.  Comments about him in recent years include:

“noted expert”, clients highlight his "clarity, tact and perspicacity" and his “very approachable manner and incisive mind”. Peers describe him as “technically good with the gravitas of a senior partner” (Chambers 2015), “absolutely first rate”, “reassuringly clever, tactically astute and extremely pleasant” (Chambers 2016), “very good and very well respected” and “measured and thoughtful”, “incredibly good” (Chambers 2017), “very impressive in terms of his ability to grasp the intricacies of complex financial products. His advice was always clear and confidence-inspiring” and “amazing. He’s extremely clever, has refined judgement and is extremely good at making clients feel he is on their side” (Chambers 2018), “very detailed and hands-on”, “He has an especially strong understanding of the challenges that individual clients are going through, and is very supportive of them” and “very sound judgement” and “good intellect” (Chambers 2019).

Primary Focus & Experience

Charles has extensive experience acting in banking and finance disputes but specialises in acting for corporates, financial institutions and individuals under investigation and in enforcement proceedings brought by a variety of regulatory bodies such as the Financial Conduct Authority, the Serious Fraud Office, the Takeover Panel, HM Revenue & Customs, Lloyd’s of London and other regulatory bodies. He has been involved in many of the most high-profile market misconduct cases which have been brought by the FCA. In addition, he has considerable experience of managing multi-jurisdictional regulatory issues and investigations and of conducting internal investigations and reviews following the discovery of suspected compliance failures.

Recent Experience

Charles has acted in some of the most significant and high-profile investigations and enforcement cases which have been brought including:

  • Conducting an internal investigation into the involvement of an international banking group in the setting of foreign exchange benchmark rates and its foreign exchange trading.
  • Johnny Cameron – the former Chairman of Global Banking and Markets at Royal Bank of Scotland, in connection with the FSA’s investigation into him and with the FSA’s subsequent preparation of a report into the collapse of RBS and in the litigation brought by shareholders in RBS concerning its rights issue in 2008.
  • Ian Hannam – the former Chairman of Capital Markets at JP Morgan, in connection with the FSA’s enforcement proceedings concerning the disclosure of inside information.
  • Acting for a trader at a major global financial institution in relation to an investigation by the DoJ, the FBI, the SEC in the US and the FCA into his trading of various fixed income instruments. The investigation closed without any enforcement action being taken against the client.
  • Acting for the Head of Fixed Income at a major international bank in relation to an FCA investigation into his oversight of trading. The investigation closed without any enforcement action being taken against the client.
  • Advising a major manufacturing company on allegations of bribery and corruption involving its operations in South East Asia, including conducting an extensive internal investigation and liaising with the SFO in the UK, the DOJ and SEC in the US and other regulatory authorities.
  • A number of senior directors at a variety of major financial institutions on a broad range of matters relating to, amongst other things, LIBOR, the banks’ handling of payment protection insurance complaints, systems and controls failures, and reports published by the FCA into banking failures.

Commercial/Banking Litigation

Charles also has a broader general commercial and banking litigation practice having acted for a number of major financial institutions and corporates on a wide variety of both domestic and international disputes. He has extensive experience of advising clients involved in major contractual disputes and negligence claims as well as judicial review proceedings, tax disputes and in pensions litigation. He regularly advises various financial institutions and corporates in relation to the Bribery Act 2010.

Recognition & Accomplishments

Charles is widely regarded as a leading practitioner. He is highly rated for contentious regulatory work by the legal directories – Chambers UK 2019: Band 1; Legal 500 Leading Individual; Benchmark Litigation Europe 2019: National Litigation Star; Legal 500: Hall of Fame.

Charles is a member of the Advisory Board of the Financial Services Lawyers Association.

Additional Details
Education
  • LSF
  • Durham University, B.A.
Admissions
  • England and Wales