Irish law firm launches app advising companies on how to handle white-collar crime dawn raids

Dawn Raid explains to companies how to prepare for raids by the authorities and has contacts for a “rapid response team” at the law firm.

The app tells firms to undertake “mock raids” and appoint staff to “shadow” investigators, who should “seek to prevent disclosure of legally privileged records”.

It also tells companies to set up “clean rooms” where officers can wait.

Matheson said authorities were increasingly willing to make dawn raids and that “this trend may continue, as regulators’ resources increase and Brexit may mean that EU regulators will no longer dawn raid in the UK”.

One senior counsel described the app as a “peculiar message” for a law firm to send.

Matheson said its app aimed to “educate and inform companies of best practice in facilitating the work of regulators” and that it was based on “an appetite from regulators themselves to have informed executives to help improve their engagement with companies they visit”.