Noel Power
Noel Power specialises in internal and regulatory investigations and white-collar criminal defence. Noel advises large corporate clients, financial institutions and senior executives across a range of industries including financial services, transport, pharmaceuticals and defence, on their interactions with the UK Serious Fraud Office, the National Crime Agency, HM Revenue & Customs and the US Department of Justice.
Noel focuses his practice on complex, multi-agency and cross-border investigations particularly involving bribery, fraud, corruption and money laundering. Noel’s practical experience of investigating and defending organisations and individuals has led to a compliance and advisory practice assisting national and international organisations in designing, implementing and testing effective compliance measures.
Noel has been listed as a key lawyer by the Legal 500 2022.
Practice Area
Panel
- Contributing Author
Qualified Year
- 2009
Experience
- A&L Goodbody, Dublin (2022 - 2022)
- Matheson, Dublin (2021 - 2022)
- Dechert LLP, London (2015 - 2021)
Education
- University College Cork, Bachelor of Civil Law, 2003
- University College Cork, Higher Diploma in Management and Marketing, 2004
5 Contributions by Noel Power
PRACTICE NOTES
Corporate Internal Investigations in the UK: Practical Guide to Planning, Legal Professional Privilege, Evidence Preservation, Interviews, Regulatory Engagement, Reporting, Employment Issues and Remediation
An internal investigation is a formal legal exercise carried out by an organisation, with or without external counsel, to examine and determine facts around a particular allegation, concern or misconduct, and to address any potential irregularities...
What sort of events may trigger an investigation?
A concern raised internally via a whistleblowing hotline or other channel (whistleblower)
A response to a demand from a regulatory or criminal authority
Part of due diligence ahead of a merger or acquisition
A civil litigation claim
An internal or external auditor’s report
Media reports
An external allegation, for example from a customer or counterparty
Why conduct an internal investigation?
Internal investigations play a vital role in establishing the factual background of an event or sequence of events in a manner that best safeguards the organisation and its board. The primary objective is to ascertain the facts and reduce legal, regulatory and reputational consequences, i.e.:
Identify the relevant facts so the board can take fully informed decisions on the organisation’s response, including disciplinary action for any employees who engaged in conduct breaching internal corporate policy or suspected breach of...
Risk & Compliance
PRACTICE NOTES
Internal Investigations: Protecting Legal Advice and Litigation Privilege—Client Definition, Documents, Interviews, Waiver and Cross-Border Issues (England and Wales)
Legal professional privilege (LPP) shields documents from disclosure to third parties, including government agencies, regulators and claimants in civil proceedings. It is vital to safeguard LPP wherever possible when carrying out internal investigations. For guidance on preserving privilege in the criminal context, see Practice Note: Maintaining privilege during criminal investigations.
Types of legal professional privilege
There are two types of LPP in England and Wales:
Legal advice privilege
Covers confidential written or oral communications between a lawyer and their client where the dominant purpose is to obtain or provide legal advice, together with related documents. Advice from an in-house lawyer is protected if given in the proper legal context and confined to the legal element of their function (ie genuinely for the purpose of giving or receiving legal advice). It will not apply where the subject matter concerns management, compliance or other broader responsibilities. For more detail, see Practice Notes: Legal professional privilege for in-house lawyers and Legal professional privilege in civil proceedings—Legal advice privilege.
Litigation privilege
Broader than legal advice privilege. Protects confidential oral or written communications between a lawyer and client and/or third parties where litigation is contemplated or in train...
Risk & Compliance
PRACTICE NOTES
Legal Professional Privilege for In-house Lawyers (England and Wales): practical steps, client definition, document controls, meeting minutes, auditors, litigation privilege, regulators, crises and resisting pressure, with SRA guidance
Legal Professional Privilege (LPP) safeguards the privacy of spoken and written exchanges between solicitors and their clients. It allows a party to resist disclosure of material to a third party or the court—see Practice Note: Legal professional privilege for in-house lawyers.
Explaining LPP to your colleagues
You must be able to explain precisely what privilege means to your colleagues. Be careful about the language you choose to use. Keep messages clear and avoid jargon—it can be preferable not to use the phrase 'legal privilege' at all when speaking with colleagues.
Set out clearly how privilege operates in practice and what is required. Explain that LPP shields the organisation’s confidential legal advice and communications from third parties, including regulators and competitors. To protect such material, keep it confidential and share it only with defined individuals.
It is the responsibility of all employees to protect the organisation’s privilege. Staff should not presume that dealings with the in-house legal team will be covered by legal privilege.
Moreover, simply writing ‘legally privileged’, or similar, on a document will not make it privileged, and may actually harm the protection by weakening an assertion of privilege over documents that ought to be protected. Likewise, simply asserting...
Risk & Compliance
PRACTICE NOTES
Legal professional privilege for in-house lawyers in England and Wales: LAP, litigation privilege, SRA guidance, internal investigations, common interest and without prejudice, waiver/loss, and international comparisons
What is legal professional privilege?
This Practice Note is aimed at in-house lawyers, including those working within law firms. It explains what legal professional privilege (LPP) means, how it operates, and who owns it. The Note also sets out how LPP can be lost or waived and summarises privilege issues in selected other jurisdictions. It covers legal advice privilege and litigation privilege, the two distinct limbs of LPP. Where appropriate, it draws on SRA guidance for in-house lawyers. See section: SRA guidance for in-house lawyers. Although parts of the law on privilege remain untested and open to academic discussion, in-house practitioners will typically decide if privilege applies by practically applying core principles and using professional judgement.
LPP is an umbrella concept comprising:
legal advice privilege (LAP), and
litigation privilege
It protects the confidentiality of written and oral communications between lawyers and clients. As a fundamental right, it entitles a party to withhold material from disclosure to a third party or a court. Documents that are confidential but not privileged do not enjoy this heightened protection.
Why is LPP important?...
Risk & Compliance
PRECEDENTS
Precedent internal investigation report (privileged and confidential): template covering process, evidence review, interviews, findings, conclusions, corrective actions, and notifications to authorities and regulators
Legally privileged and confidential. Do not circulate further without prior reference to [ insert, eg Head of Legal ]. Date of report: [ insert date ]. Report prepared by: [ insert name of internal department or external law firm providing the report ]. Report provided to:
[ Insert name ] – [ Insert job title ]
[ Insert name ] – [ Insert job title ]
[ Insert name ] – [ Insert job title ]
1 Executive summary
[ Insert executive summary ]
2 Complaints/issues
The allegation(s) or concern(s) notified are listed below:
Allegation 1 [ Insert description of allegation 1 ]
Allegation 2 [ Insert description of allegation 2 ]
Allegation 3 [ Insert description of allegation 3 ]
Allegation 4 [ Insert description of allegation 4 ]
3 Investigation process
3.1 Document review
3.1.1 Collection of electronic data
(a) We have secured electronic material comprising forensic captures of laptops, desktop hard drives, mobile devices, USB storage devices and archived data concerning [ insert number ] current and former employees of [ insert...
Risk & Compliance
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