Richard Egan

Richard deals with serious and complex criminal prosecutions.

Richard is in charge of bespoke legal teams set up to prepare and analyse cases where there are likely to be complex legal issues or voluminous documentation. He has particular expertise in murder, conspiracy to murder, extortion and corruption as well as fraud money laundering and defending those accused of international criminal conspiracies.

Richard and his team utilise sophisticated case IT case management systems, that ensure no matter how complex or voluminous the case, no detail is overlooked.

Richard is ranked as a “Band 1” lawyer in Chambers and Partners the independent guide to the profession who describe him as:

“A real heavyweight in the field” – Chambers 2013

” One of the best lawyers of his generation”  – Chambers 2012

Richard is ranked as a “Leading individual” in the Legal 500 who describe him as:

“A smart cookie” – Legal 500 2013

“Egan’s attention to detail is second to none” – Legal 500 2013

General Crime

Richard has had a successful practice in defending clients accused of murder and conspiracy to murder both in the UK and abroad. He regularly deals with matters involving multiple jurisdictional issues and has expertise in international law extradition and mutual assistance. Richard has acted successfully in defending a number of army courts martial proceedings as well as defending service personnel in state prosecutions including a high-profile conspiracy to murder by British army soldiers in Belize.   Detailed submissions to the court resulted in the case against his soldier client being thrown out. Richard was voted Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year after successfully defending the man wrongly accused of training the 9/11 pilots against his attempted extradition to the United States following which he was able to successfully sue the government and was granted substantial damages. He also acted for defendants accused of conspiracy to murder in the transatlantic airline ‘liquid bomb’ plot and the lead defendant accused of attempted murder in the London/Glasgow bomb plots. Richard is regularly instructed in extremely serious and high profile cases requiring media management and has significant experience in dealing with the additional burdens that close media scrutiny may present.

Fraud and Business Crime

Richard was instructed to act on behalf of businessmen named as suspects in the commission of enquiry following the suspension of the constitution in the Turks and Caicos Islands corruption scandal. He has also acted on behalf of a director in relation to the BAE corruption allegations and acted for the only defendant to be cleared in the Ritz Hotel fraud where a conspiracy to extort funds for the proposed sale of the landmark hotel in London resulted in a high-profile trial. He is currently acting on behalf of a film producer accused of the largest tax fraud conspiracy ever prosecuted and for a lead heart surgery perfusionist in an alleged conspiracy to defraud the National Health Service of millions of pounds. Richard has also acted for corporate clients in a number of regulatory prosecutions and twice successfully defended Millwall Football Club against allegations of corporate racism brought by the Football Association as well as successfully acting for football agents investigated for alleged corruption in multi million pound player transfer deals.

Richard’s success in defending high profile defendants has been the subject of a lead article in ‘The Times’ newspaper and he has appeared regularly as a legal expert in the broadcast media. He is a member of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association, the Health and Safety Lawyers Association, Association of Military Court Advocates and Justice.