Addleshaw Goddard has announced the appointment of Financial Services regulatory expert Steven Francis as partner in its rapidly expanding Financial Regulation practice in London. This follows the recent hire of regulatory partner Richard Small and senior associate William Robertson.

Steven joins from EY where he heads the regulatory team, and has a strong track record assisting clients in relation to financial regulatory issues, spanning the full range of non-contentious advisory assistance to help with investigations and full blown enforcement. He spent six years heading up the Financial Services and Regulatory Group at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, as well as spending time in the FSA's enforcement division. 

Steven's most recent experience has included working on significant Brexit planning with clients, as well as helping a range of clients in the payments, banks and asset management space.

Steven's appointment will add further bandwidth to AG's Financial Regulation team, strengthening its Financial Markets practice, but also adding strategically to the direction of its Risk and Compliance offering, which is staffed by non-lawyer compliance professionals. Steven will also add strength to AG's contentious regulatory offering, which was recently bolstered by new partner hire David Pygott.  

Mandie Hulme, Head of AG's Financial Services sector, said: 

"There is no doubt that demand for quality financial services regulatory advice in the UK currently exceeds the capacity of the legal market to serve it. Brexit has only served to exacerbate that position. There continues to be enormous upheaval in the regulatory environment globally, which is likely to continue. For clients, this has caused considerable uncertainty, and identifying and managing regulatory risk remains a key driver.

"Steven's vast experience across the financial regulatory space will add bench strength as we help clients navigate their way through all of their compliance and enforcement issues, in the face of these challenges."

The Financial Services sector is Addleshaw Goddard's largest single market sector, with the firm providing a full range of transactional, regulatory, compliance, advisory and dispute advice.

The Financial Regulation team consists of more than 30 regulatory specialists spanning the payments, fintech, retail, and wholesale financial services and is relatively unique in the way it integrates experienced Financial Regulation lawyers with senior Compliance professionals.  AG also has a separate Regulatory Investigations and Enforcement Team, headed by Partner Nichola Peters, which covers financial crime, ABC and FCA enforcement work.