The business of business crime

Dear Oracle

I recently met a criminal solicitor at a party, who seemed quite negative about his career choice, citing legal aid funding problems, lower salary and some firms’ wavering commitment to criminal practice. I got the impression that commercial legal work was a 'safer' bet, but I really can’t see myself doing corporate and property transactions for the rest of my career. Is there no half-way house?

The Oracle replies

You're sensible to consider your career prospects and future earning potential at this early stage of your decision making. Changes to legal aid have made traditional criminal practice more difficult and less profitable, and the solicitor you spoke to is not alone in voicing their concerns.

Have you considered fraud and white-collar crime? The business world regularly spawns criminal cases, and arguably more of them than ever in the post-2008 era. Few cases will be as dramatic as that of UBS trader Kwaku Adoboli, although many will relate to the financial services sector and other heavily regulated industries. Business-focused criminal proceedings also crop up in relation to competition law, company law, environment law, corporate manslaughter and trading standards, among other things.

You need to be interested in the commercial world to make any kind of headway, so don't look on this as an alternative to commercial work - more as a variant of it that focuses on your investigative talents and flair for case management. As competition for training contracts at the leading firms is fierce, to be in with a chance you'll need to have excellent grades and some level of familiarity with the field. Reading up on some of the UK's biggest and best-known fraud cases is a good start and will help you decide if the work really does appeal.

You must be detail-conscious to carry out this type of work as the evidence on which cases rely are commonly buried within mountains of documents and electronic files that need to be scrutinised and managed for months on end. Don't expect to be in and out of the local courts every day - in this respect it is entirely different to more general 'knockabout' crime work. As business people, your clients (defendants and witnesses) will expect their lawyers to be fully conversant in company law and practice, and intellectually this makes it a 'heavyweight' area of law.

The field is dominated by smaller, more niche firms (eg, Peters & Peters and Kingsley Napley) although a few of the biggest firms do have business crime teams (eg, DLA Piper, Irwin Mitchell and Simmons & Simmons). Of course, if you plump for one of these bigger firms your training contract will probably be dominated by  transactional work from their other departments, and if that's a no-no for you, then you should target specialised business crime firms.

Business crime, fraud, white-collar crime - whatever name you give it - can be amazingly exciting during the high points but very taxing when it comes to case preparation. Research well before deciding what you want to do.