Criminal Litigation

Mutual Legal Assistance

Our Approach

Our experience spans cross-border criminal and financial regulatory investigations, corruption and fraud matters, financial sanctions, tax investigations and cartel investigations.

We have longstanding experience of Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) requests and regularly advise individual and corporate clients on criminal cases with an international dimension.

MLA is the process by which states are able to request cooperation from other countries in the investigation and prosecution of crime. Such requests may involve calls for evidence or witness statements, requests for the enforcement of judgments, asset freezing or confiscation orders here in the UK.

Our experience spans cross-border criminal and financial regulatory investigations, corruption and fraud matters, financial sanctions, tax investigations and cartel investigations.

The global nature of business and human relationships today means that criminal investigations too are often multi-jurisdictional. Regulators and enforcement agencies are increasingly adept at coordinating with their international counterparts.

Parties subject to an MLA request, whether as witness or suspect, need expert advice on their obligations and rights, and how best to engage with the requesting authority

A strong team ethic shines through at Kingsley Napley and there is ready support from across the whole team, whose assistance is always quick, accurate and reassuring.

Chambers and Partners _ 2025

The team are especially good at being empathetic towards their clients and taking the time to engage with their wider personal context.

Chambers UK _ 2026

Our Expertise

How we can help

We are familiar with the various international treaty and MLA convention arrangements that exist between the UK and other countries.
We advise international clients on English law considerations and English court procedure where UK-based evidence is to be gathered or enforcement is sought in the UK by an overseas agency.
We also advise parties in the UK who are the subject of an MLA request to assist in foreign criminal investigations or proceedings (and any related risk of extradition or follow-on UK proceedings).
Our role may involve brokering deals, managing or resisting requests, depending on what is in the client’s best interests.

Our approach

Our Extradition, Fraud and White-Collar teams are well known for robust criminal defence advice and we look to devise a strategy best suited to each particular client.

We can assemble a team of experts from across the firm where cases require a detailed knowledge for example of public law, regulatory issues or potential civil liability.

We also have a trusted network of overseas lawyers that we work with closely to ensure advice is highly attuned to the jurisdiction(s) and/or agencies involved.

MLA matters can be highly complex, given the multi-jurisdictional issues and coordination involved.

Our aim is to achieve a satisfactory resolution of such requests that meets the needs of the client and is proportionate to the conduct being scrutinised.