Will Hayes

Will is a Legal Director in the criminal litigation team with a practice focussing predominantly on white-collar crime, extradition and INTERPOL, and internal investigations. He is an expert on the law of legal professional privilege.

White-collar and financial crime 
Will has extensive experience advising individuals and corporates in a wide range of white-collar and financial crime cases. These include large-scale, complex investigations and prosecutions brought by the SFO, HMRC, CPS, ICO and other authorities, often involving highly technical subject matter and substantial volumes of evidence. He has advised clients dealing with allegations of fraud, bribery, false accounting, money laundering, forgery, data protection offences, corporate manslaughter, ill-treatment and wilful neglect by a care provider, and insolvency offences. He also has significant experience of dealing with proceeds of crime cases, including confiscation, account freezing orders, account forfeiture orders, cash seizure and detention.

Extradition, INTERPOL and international criminal law
Will represents clients defending extradition requests at all stages of proceedings, from initial arrest right through to appeals before the High Court, and in some cases continued assistance after extradition has taken place. He also has extensive experience of all matters relating to INTERPOL, including applications for deletion of Red Notices and Blue Notices, pre-emptive requests to block Red Notices from being issued and applications for disclosure of information held by INTERPOL. He has a deep understanding of INTERPOL’s rules, principles and practices, enabling highly effective applications to be submitted to INTERPOL on behalf of clients. He has dealt with cases involving a wide range of countries, including the USA, India, Pakistan, China, Venezuela, Jordan, Tunisia and many others. His cases often involve highly sensitive political issues, complex questions of law, and high profile and HNW clients.

Will is ranked as an Associate to Watch in the field of extradition by Chambers UK.

Other international criminal law experience includes advising on mutual legal assistance requests to the UK, seeking diplomatic assistance for UK nationals facing criminal proceedings in foreign countries and conducting multi-jurisdictional internal investigations.

Legal professional privilege

Will is an expert on the law of legal professional privilege and is the co-author of ‘Legal Professional Privilege in Criminal Investigations and Proceedings’, published by Oxford University Press in 2024. He regularly advises on complex privilege issues arising in a wide range of criminal cases and internal investigations, as well as assisting colleagues in other practice areas. He has delivered training on the topic, including for the Law Society and the Criminal Bar Association, and he has provided practitioner input into Law Society initiatives on privilege.

Internal investigations
Will has worked on numerous large-scale internal investigations for companies and other organisations looking into allegations of fraud, money laundering, misappropriation of company funds, regulatory breaches, sexual misconduct in the workplace and human rights abuses. These have included high profile clients and allegations that have attracted significant media attention, with the internal investigation often taking place at the same time as, or in anticipation of, an investigation by a law enforcement agency.

Criminal defence and police investigations
Will has represented clients in cases covering the full spectrum of general crime, including rape and other sexual offences, serious violence, drug offences, perverting the course of justice, harassment, stalking and malicious communications offences. He has experience of all stages of criminal proceedings, from interviews under caution at the commencement of a criminal investigation to matters before the Court of Appeal.

Recent Cases

• Account forfeiture proceedings relating to multiple bank accounts held by the client and his companies, with total funds in excess of £10m. The case was resolved by way of a negotiated settlement agreement with the investigating authority.
• Represented the CEO of a company prosecuted for his role in a multi-million pound fraud on investors and VAT fraud. The prosecution followed a five-year HMRC investigation which Will dealt with from the outset. Will also dealt with confiscation proceedings and a successful appeal against sentence in the Court of Appeal.
• Advised a care home provider investigated for corporate manslaughter and other offences following a number of deaths at its premises. The case involved complex medical and legal issues.
• Represented a professional prosecuted for allegedly defrauding insurance companies and forging evidence to conceal the fraud. The case culminated in a three-week trial and involved complex issues requiring expert evidence.
• A number of cases involving US extradition requests for fraud, bribery, other financial crime and sanctions violations.
• Successful removal of a Red Notice issued on behalf of India for terrorism offences. The Red Notice had been in place for 14 years before it was removed. 
• Several cases involving Red Notices and Blue Notices issued on behalf of China for gambling offences. 
• Numerous applications for deletion of Red Notices issued on behalf of India for fraud, money laundering and other financial crime, including high profile and politically sensitive cases.
• Led part of a large-scale internal investigation examining allegations against a high profile, global organisation. Will was responsible for the investigation into allegations of human rights abuses and fraud in one of the countries in which the organisation operated.
• A large internal investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct at a media organisation.
• Represented a client charged with assisting an offender and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, whose alleged co-conspirators (who were additionally charged with murder) were tried alongside him. The client was acquitted following a five-week trial.

PUBLICATIONS, PRESS HIGHLIGHTS & SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

• Disclosing client information to investigators, The Law Society Gazette, February 2025
  Co-author of ‘Legal Professional Privilege in Criminal Investigations and Proceedings’, published by Oxford University Press in 2024.  
• Extradition roundup, The Law Society Gazette, January 2024
• Quoted in Rwanda Fed False Intelligence to U.S. and Interpol As It Pursued Political Dissidents Abroad, OCCRP, November 2022
• COVID-19 Fraud: New Taxpayer Protection Force - published by International Law Office in their Corporate Tax Newsletter, March 2021
• COVID-19 Fraud: An Emerging Risk for Companies - PLC Magazine, January 2021
• International Insights in Criminal Law: Episode 1, Interpol and Red Notices - August 2020
• Co-authored Chapter 2.17: Legal Professional Privilege, The Clinical Legal Education Handbook, May 2020
• Cross-examination in sexual offences, Law Society Gazette – June 2019
• Rape victims will be allowed to give evidence in advance - Quoted in The Times, June 2019
• Assisted Louise Hodges and Caroline Day with their chapter in Global Investigation Review’s (GIR) Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations (Witness Interviews in Internal Investigations: The UK Perspective’).

PROFESSIONAL memberships and societies

• Criminal Bar Association (CBA)
• Defence Extradition Lawyers Forum (DELF)
• European Criminal Bar Association (ECBA)
• Fraud Lawyers Association (FLA)