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Rhys Novak

Partner

Rhys is a dispute resolution specialist.

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About

Rhys is a dispute resolution specialist with a broad-based disputes practice, advising both companies and individuals on commercial, corporate and financial services disputes. He also has a particular specialism in running and advising on internal investigations and stand-alone advisory work concerning suspected economic crimes such as bribery, fraud, money laundering and sanctions.

He advises current and former officers and employees involved in regulatory and criminal investigations and prosecutions, especially where that individual requires personal advice independent from the advice being provided to their implicated company. He has also prepared and advised on compliance programmes relating to anti-bribery and anti-money laundering and on policies prohibiting the facilitation of tax evasion.

Rhys represents clients on a wide range of commercial, corporate and financial services disputes and regulatory issues including breach of contract, fraud, tax, shareholder, professional negligence and warranty claims in both litigation and arbitration.

He is an experienced user and advocate of alternative dispute resolution, having negotiated settlements and represented clients in over 25 mediations.

Rhys became a partner at the firm in May 2011, having joined in March 2008 from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he trained and was admitted as an English solicitor in 2000.

Experience

  • Representing a former employee of Shell in corruption investigations commenced by the Serious Fraud Office and advising him on his defence of bribery and corruption charges in Italian criminal proceedings concerning an offshore oil license in Nigeria valued at over £1 billion 
  • Representing a tech entrepreneur in his claims to recover over £20 million in complex multi-party fraud proceedings in both the English Commercial Court and in an LCIA arbitration.   involving the Serious Fraud Office, the Viscount of Jersey, litigation funders and various office-holders.  Rhys obtained two freezing injunctions – one in England and one in Jersey in support of his client’s claims.  These cases have also involved applications and hearings in the Isle of Man and Liechtenstein
  • Representing an engineering company on its defence of a US$146 million claim concerning its investment in a Tanzanian power plant. This work included a multi-jurisdictional battle involving proceedings in England, Tanzania, New York and the Netherlands
  • Advising clients on the scope and effect of the UK sanctions regimes in relation to, amongst others, the Crimea and Belarus

Recognition

  • uk-leading-individual-2024

Our thinking

  • Broker duties, lender liability and secret commission: broking bad

    Rebecca Hollinshead

    Insights

  • Rhys Novak writes for Investment International on the UK’s new fraud prevention guidelines

    Rhys Novak

    In The Press

  • Global Investigations Review quotes Rhys Novak on the UK government’s new guidance on complying with its forthcoming failure to prevent fraud offence

    Rhys Novak

    In The Press

  • The new guidance on the offence of failing to prevent fraud – will it lead to a sea-change to anti-fraud compliance mechanisms?

    Rhys Novak

    Quick Reads

  • Rhys Novak writes for Solicitors Journal on what legal advisors need to know about dawn raids

    Rhys Novak

    In The Press

  • Has a new route to recovery opened up for victims of banking payment frauds?

    Katie Bewick

    Insights

  • Will new powers at Companies House stop or slow down fraudsters?

    Peter Carlyon

    Quick Reads

  • Dawn raids... a new dawn?

    Rhys Novak

    Quick Reads

  • Radical reforms to fight economic crime: what should businesses do now?

    Rhys Novak

    Insights

  • Rhys Novak and Abigail Rushton write for PLC Magazine on the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023

    Rhys Novak

    In The Press

  • Financial Reporter quotes Rhys Novak on a new FCA review into the treatment of PEPs

    Rhys Novak

    In The Press

  • Fail to prevent, prepare to fail

    Abigail Rushton

    Insights

  • Tulips are red, violets are blue: do software developers have fiduciary duties too?

    Abigail Rushton

    Insights

  • Failing to prevent is preparing to fail - the new "failure to prevent" fraud criminal offence

    Abigail Rushton

    Insights

  • Not-so-secret identities

    Rhys Novak

    Insights

  • The Serious Fraud Office and the Crown Prosecution Service call for failure to prevent offences to be extended

    Rhys Novak

    Quick Reads

  • Charles Russell Speechlys helps defeat bribery prosecution in stunning victory in the Milan Court of Appeal

    Rhys Novak

    News

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