Due to their extensive involvement in business and financial activities, HNW individuals can be at the forefront of complex legal challenges. White-collar crimes, such as fraud, embezzlement, insider trading, money laundering and tax evasion pose significant risks.
In these circumstances, a criminal lawyer specialising in white-collar crime becomes indispensable. A skilled criminal lawyer understands the unique legal landscape HNW individuals navigate and can also provide services in cases of regulatory investigations such as those brought about by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Explore the other rankings within the 2025 Spear’s Legal Indices:
The Spear’s Index of criminal lawyers is an invaluable resource for finding the very best defence and prosecution solicitors who specialise in high-value financial crime, fraud and regulatory wrongdoing. This year, there is a record number of Top Recommended criminal lawyers featured in the Spear’s Index, reflecting both the depth of talent and the expansion of criminal law departments. Bigger law firms are increasingly diversifying into criminal law, driven by several factors, including to better serve their clients’ needs.
HNWs who are the victims of crime may have cause to engage a criminal lawyer to provide advice and/or bring a prosecution. Due to their considerable wealth, high-net-worth individuals are often targeted by criminals, making a good criminal lawyer essential to defend their clients where necessary. As Rebecca Niblock, a partner at Kingsley Napley, previously told Spear’s: ‘We’re the secret weapon. People think they may not need us, but then they do.’
Click the links below to jump to a section of this article:
- Methodology
- Best lawyers for criminal and white collar crime: some names to know
- Best lawyers for criminal and white collar crime: the complete list
- Contact us
Methodology
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to The Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
Content from our partners
Best lawyers for criminal and white collar crime: some names to know
Neil Hay
- Focus: Specialist court representation
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Levy & McRae
Based in Edinburgh and London, Levy & McRae partner Neil Hay is the solicitor of choice for a number of law firms across England and Scotland thanks to his great expertise in criminal law, particularly cases involving high-net-worth and high-profile clients.
He has represented landowners, politicians, celebrities and investors. Corporate clients include large companies, pressure groups and charities.
Read Neil Hay’s full profile on Spears500.com
Ellen Peart
- Focus: High-profile clients
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: BCL Solicitors
Ellen Peart is head of serious and general crime and a partner at BCL Solicitors in London. She is an experienced and highly capable criminal solicitor whose clients are accused of a wide range of crimes, including sexual offences, homicide, harassment and computer misuse.
Read Ellen Peart’s full profile on Spears500.com
Phil Smith
- Focus: Reporting crime and fraud
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Simons Muirhead Burton
With more than a quarter century of experience, Phil Smith is a dab hand at all matters of criminal law. Praised by a peer as ‘able to get on top of the most detailed case extremely quickly and has a fantastic personable manner – someone who engenders immediate trust and respect’, clients approach Smith for his professionalism and discretion, from international elite sports stars and recording artists to property tycoons, bankers and doctors.
He also acts for high-profile clients in reporting crime and fraud to the authorities. ‘We assist high-net-worth clients who want to bring criminal complaints to the police but are turned off by the incompetence that they’re met with,’ Smith tells Spear’s. ‘There’s a reluctance by the police to prosecute, particularly in cases of harassment … so my role is to be the go-between and give pragmatic advice to the client.’
Read Phil Smith’s full profile on Spears500.com
Rebecca Niblock
- Focus: Extradition cases
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Kingsley Napley
Niblock has focused on criminal litigation, white-collar and financial crime and extradition proceedings since coming to Kingsley Napley in 2012. She regularly instructs clients who are facing challenges associated with Interpol red notices – something she says is increasingly common for HNWs who conduct business across jurisdictions. She also takes on cases involving accusations of serious fraud, money laundering and corruption.
Read Rebecca Niblock’s full profile on Spears500.com
Best lawyers for criminal and white collar crime: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles on spears500.com. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabeticallyby surname.
Contact us
- To apply for inclusion in The Spear’s 500, complete our submission form.
- For further information about rankings, please email research@spearswms.com; we aim to respond to all queries within two working days.
- For commercial enquiries and questions relating to enhanced profiles, please contact Commercial Director Shady Elkholy: shady.elkholy@spearswms.com
- To keep up to date with the Spear’s 500, subscribe to our magazine, newsletter and follow Spear’s on Linkedin and Instagram.
- If you have missed calendar deadlines for our research cycles in 2025, you can still register your interest for updates about upcoming research and rankings.
- Click here to order a print copy of The Spear’s 500.
