Stephen Pollard

 Stephen Pollard, partner, is head of WilmerHale’s UK investigations and criminal litigation practice. He is a seasoned litigator with more than 25 years of experience on the full spectrum of business crime and securities enforcement work. He represents members of the investor community including senior managers, brokers and traders facing allegations of insider trading, market manipulation and market abuse, particularly in proceedings brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). He also has extensive experience in handling high-profile matters requiring press and reputational management.Mr Pollard represented the former Barings trader Nick Leeson, as well as a defendant in the FCA’s first criminal prosecution for market manipulation. He has particular experience in the defence of financial services fraud, multi-jurisdictional white-collar crime allegations, corruption allegations, competition and cartel allegations and internal investigations. Mr Pollard acted for the former Commercial Director of British Airways in relation to allegations of price fixing, which resulted in an acquittal after the collapse of the trial. He also represented Vincent Tchenguiz in his successful challenge to the SFO investigation relating to the collapse of Kaupthing bank. In 2012, he secured the acquittal of a company director accused by the SFO of conspiring to corrupt the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam.He is currently representing a number of individuals in the SFO/DOJ Libor and FX investigations, and in a number of DOJ/SEC investigations into alleged corruption. He also has clients in the current SFO investigations into Barclays (payments to Qatar), Alstom (alleged corruption), ENRC (alleged corruption in Africa), Serco (alleged overcharging), and Bertling and Rolls-Royce (alleged corruption). He is involved in a number of internal investigations for corporate clients.