DLA Piper has hired the head of Pinsent Masons’ London office, senior investigations lawyer Andrew Sackey, marking the latest of a flurry of senior hires in London in the field of white collar crime.

Sackey has joined the firm’s corporate crime and investigations (CCI) team after four years at Pinsents, where he took over leadership of the London office last year having earlier served as global head of investigations and London head of tax fraud investigations.  

Before that he spent nearly 13 years at HMRC, where he rose to become deputy director for corporate and offshore investigations, and earlier in his career worked as a case controller at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).  

DLA Piper’s CCI team lead, Laura Ford, said Sackey brought “a unique blend of experience” from HMRC, the SFO and private practice.  

“We anticipate Andrew leveraging this experience to make a significant contribution to our global investigations practice as well as building on our contentious tax offering alongside our UK head of tax, Jason Collins,” she said. “Andrew will bring added and distinct credibility to our cross-jurisdictional support to our international clients in an area where they expect assured and experienced responses.”

Sackey has joined DLA Piper as the second partner in its UK CCI team after Ford. His practice is primarily focused on large scale domestic and international bribery, fraud, tax evasion and money laundering investigations.  

His arrival at DLA Piper comes at a time of expected heightened activity in this area as significant new “failure to prevent” legislation comes into force and Nick Ephgrave, who became director of the SFO last September, attempts to turn over a new leaf at the troubled regulator.  

DLA Piper said Sackey’s experience as head of corporate and offshore criminal investigations at HMRC would “add a level of insight which is a unique and compelling cross practice element to his role”.  

Sackey led more than 500 investigators at HMRC and his responsibilities included the Panama Papers and significant corporate investigations. He was also a senior contributor to the J5, the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement, which works to combat international tax crime and money laundering.

Since being in private practice Sackey has also become a lead point of contact for corporate clients faced with cyber security incidents, particularly in relation to delivering crisis response protocols and negotiating with threat actors.

Earlier this month, Paul Hastings boosted its London investigations and litigation bench with the hire of partners Stuart Alford KC and Oliver Browne from Latham & Watkins, while Sir Max Hill KC, the former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of England and Wales, joined top 20 US law firm King & Spalding’s London office as a counsel.

Brown Rudnick hired partner Paul Feldberg last month from Jenner & Block as head of its UK white collar defence, investigations and compliance practice. And last December White & Case hired Neill Blundell from Macfarlanes to lead its London white collar crime team.   

DLA Piper, meanwhile, bolstered its London energy bench earlier this week with the hire of partners Steven Bryan from Paul Hastings and Derwin Jenkinson from Brown Rudnick, who focus on M&A and finance respectively.