Business Crimes, Investigations & Compliance

As Canadian and international laws relating to business crimes strengthen, there is a corresponding move towards greater enforcement. Recent high-profile cases demonstrate the devastating impact that criminal and regulatory investigations and prosecutions can have on a company, its officers, directors, employees and shareholders.

Blakes has a leading Business Crimes, Investigations & Compliance practice. We have significant experience defending white-collar crime enforcement actions, conducting multi-jurisdictional internal investigations, and designing and assessing sophisticated compliance programs.

Multinational and domestic corporations and individuals retain us to advise and defend them in respect of a wide range of white-collar criminal charges, including under the Criminal Code, Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA), Income Tax Act, Competition Act, Customs Act and provincial securities legislation. We also represent clients in pensions, environmental, tax and workplace safety matters.

Blakes white-collar-crime lawyers have extensive experience directing multi-jurisdictional internal investigations on sophisticated white-collar and anti-corruption matters. This allows us to quickly advise on complex matters relating to the structure and conduct of internal investigations, privilege protection strategies, corporate governance, and disclosure considerations and strategies for investigating sensitive matters discreetly, with minimal interruption to ongoing business operations. We also have considerable expertise in crisis response and management and regularly assist clients in dealing with the aftermath of major incidents resulting in internal and external investigations by regulatory and enforcement authorities.

Blakes has played a leading role in Canada’s most significant corruption enforcement actions to date. We regularly provide anti-corruption and compliance advice and have successfully defended clients charged with corruption and bribery of public officials. We are routinely engaged to conduct internal investigations, develop anti-corruption compliance programs, undertake detailed risk assessments and compliance program reviews and conduct detailed anti-corruption due diligence during transactions.

We have designed, implemented and assessed compliance programs for companies with operations on every continent (except Antarctica) across a wide range of industries. Prominent publicly traded companies regularly seek our advice in establishing anti-corruption and anti-bribery policies, compliance training and reviewing the legality of proposed business practices. Our compliance expertise extends to legal and regulatory requirements relating to anti-money laundering, prevention of terrorist financing and other dealings prohibited by sanctions legislation.

Blakes mobilizes teams on short notice to respond to urgent matters, including search warrants, production orders and compelled interviews. Our criminal and civil law expertise, extensive corporate and commercial litigation experience, and specialized national resources set us apart from other law firms when dealing with criminal and regulatory charges relating to businesses.