Rachel Kapila

Rachel is a highly sought-after junior in the fields of financial crime (individual and corporate), investigations, and high-profile general crime. “Fiercely bright”, “calm and focussed”, she is ranked in Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 as a leading practitioner in these areas, with reviewers highlighting her “formidable legal brain”, her “strong sense of strategy”, her “extraordinary command of facts and details” and her “excellent presence in court”.

Rachel is regularly instructed to act for individual and corporate clients in the most serious and heavyweight white-collar investigations and prosecutions. She has a breadth of experience, with current and past instructions encompassing a wide range of offences, including fraud, bribery and corruption, false accounting, forgery, Revenue offences and money laundering. She acts for clients at all stages of criminal proceedings, from pre-charge advice, including advice in connection with the conduct of corporate internal investigations, to jury trials and appellate work. She also has experience in the conduct of private prosecutions.

Rachel’s advice is routinely sought on a wide range of ancillary matters, including privilege, search warrants, restraint, account freezing orders, forfeiture, and confiscation. She has experience in judicial review, appeals by way of case stated and habeas corpus applications. The cases in which she is instructed frequently involve parallel civil and regulatory proceedings, and raise issues spanning multiple jurisdictions.

The multi-jurisdictional nature of Rachel’s practice is complemented by her expertise in extradition and mutual legal assistance. She is recognised in the directories as “a star, possibly the star, individual junior of the extradition Bar” and is “at the top of the list for anyone seriously seeking a barrister with intellect, diligence and ability to carry the most difficult cases”. Rachel is regularly instructed in high-profile and complex extradition proceedings, particularly proceedings with a financial crime context. She also has a substantial advisory practice in this area, advising clients in connection with anticipated extradition requests, Interpol notices and MLA requests.

Outside the field of financial crime, Rachel’s notable instructions include acting for a senior News of the World journalist charged with phone hacking, and defending an election agent accused, alongside a Conservative MP, of submitting false election expenses returns following the 2015 General Election. Rachel is one of very few juniors with particular expertise in criminal investigations and proceedings arising out of alleged breaches of electoral law. The directories highlight her “almost encyclopaedic knowledge of often byzantine electoral laws” combined with “a seemingly effortless ability to master the facts of a case in double-quick time”.

Rachel also has niche practices in sporting and gambling regulation. “She has become a go-to in the online gambling world” (Chambers & Partners).

Current and recent instructions include:

• Representing a former Glencore employee charged by the SFO with corruption offences arising out of the company’s operations in West Africa.
• Representing an individual charged with cheating at gambling following the Gambling Commission’s investigation into betting on the date of the 2024 General Election.
• Advising an individual charged with historic bribery in the Isle of Man: the first bribery prosecution in that jurisdiction.
• Advising on complex civil forfeiture proceedings in the Channel Islands.
• Advising a prominent property developer in relation to a police investigation into allegations of fraud and corruption, an associated challenge to search warrants, and cash forfeiture proceedings.
• Advising individuals in connection with a high-profile NCA investigation.
• Advising a HNW individual on extradition issues arising out of the ‘Varsity Blues’ college admissions scandal in the US.
• Advising an individual under investigation by City of London Police for electoral offences and perverting the course of justice.
• Advising a prominent HNW individual in connection with an anticipated extradition request from an East Asian jurisdiction.
• Appearing in the Supreme Court, in a case considering the test to be applied where a convicted person seeks to resist extradition on the basis that his conviction was the result of a flagrantly unfair trial.
• Representing a defendant charged by the SFO with fraud offences in connection with the operations of Balli Group Plc and Balli Steel Plc.
• Advising Rio Tinto group in connection with SFO and Australian Federal Police investigations into allegations of corruption in the conduct of its business in the Republic of Guinea.
• Representing Dechert LLP and its former co-head of white collar and securities litigation in the Commercial Court trial of claims brought by ENRC against the Dechert defendants and the SFO.
• Representing a professional sportsman charged with offences of sexual assault, common assault and being drunk on an aircraft.
• Acting for the US Government in extradition proceedings arising out of the collapse of the Abraaj Group, the world’s largest private equity insolvency.
• Advising a prominent individual in connection with a high-profile Electoral Commission investigation.
• Advising the responsible person for Vote Leave in connection with the Metropolitan Police investigation into electoral offences alleged to have been committed during the 2016 EU Referendum campaign.
  Representing a former hedge fund executive, charged with defrauding a Libyan sovereign wealth fund.
• Advising a corporate client in connection with internal, SFO and DOJ investigations into allegations of historic multi-jurisdictional bribery, associated with the activities of Unaoil.
• Advising the operators of a prominent Mayfair casino in connection with a change of corporate control application under s.102, Gambling Act 2005.
• Acting for the Governor of the Falkland Islands in proceedings arising out of the first two extradition requests issued by that territory to the United Kingdom.
• Advising the Attorney General of another British Overseas Territory in relation to a high-profile criminal prosecution within that territory, and associated extradition proceedings.