Regulatory risk and compliance

Why do you need risk and compliance advice?

Evidence shows that the potential cost of non-compliance and regulatory divergence has risen by as much as 45% since 2011. The average quantifiable cost of non-compliance has been assessed at around $14.8 million, however the reputational damage can be limitless.

As environmental social and governance (ESG) issues become ever more significant to pension funds and investors, ensuring regulatory compliance is essential.

Why choose our risk and compliance lawyers?

Our market-leading lawyers provide strategic advice in relation to the central regulatory risks and compliance challenges organisations and businesses face in the UK. The UK has an extremely well-developed system of regulatory governance and expert advice is required to navigate that in a compliant way.

Shepherd and Wedderburn's risk and compliance team

It is more important than ever to get compliance right and govern regulatory risk in such a way that minimises exposure to a breach.

To help our clients do this we bring together specialist legal expertise across key regulated areas including energy, telecoms, finance, health & safety, environment, employment, anti-corruption, healthcare, GDPR, sport, food & drink, competition, charities, pensions and technology. This cross-sectoral approach means we understand the practices of regulators across the UK, allowing us to identify cross-cutting trends and anticipate regulatory change.

Our approach to risk management and compliance

Evaluate

• Systems and processes: advising on the strategic design and evaluation of regulatory risk management systems and processes.
• Governance: advising on the performance of Board/risk committee functions in a regulatory context.
• Example: we acted for a retail housing developer in assessing and advising on its compliance strategy and policies across all areas of social and environmental governance. We then proposed changes to enhance the design and articulation of its compliance approach.

Comply

• Knowledge and advice: providing recommendations based on evaluation outcomes and our in-depth knowledge of the relevant regulations to ensure your compliance.
• Compliance monitoring: delivering commercially-relevant regulatory updates.
• Example: we developed a bespoke monitoring system for a large multi-national client. The client receives regular updates on regulatory and compliance issues across the globe, provided through our international network of specialist firms, with the data tailored to suit its needs. It has one point of contact and all advice is backed by professional indemnity cover.

Respond

• Intervention: advising on all forms of regulatory intervention and internal investigations.
• Improvement: advising on remediation and/or improvement in light of emergent issues.
• Example: we have acted in many sensitive, high-profile and multi-million-pound regulatory investigations and have provided extensive advice on public law challenges to regulatory decision-making, involving preparing multiple legal briefings, position papers and developing agile negotiating strategies.