Richard Fleck CBE

Richard Fleck has a wide-ranging practice embracing international corporate transactions, dispute resolution, and competition and regulation, including:

• transactions for NYSE (Euronext), Time Warner (AOL), Fortune Brands (Pernod Ricard/Allied Domecq), Grand Metropolitan (now Diageo), BAT, De Beers, Virgin and Fosters Brewing Group;
• international commercial disputes such as the collapse of Enron, the DeLorean Motor Car Group, Johnson Matthey Bankers, the Reksten Shipping Group bankruptcy and resulting investigation, the disputes involving Lonrho/House of Fraser, and Nissan UK/Nissan Motor Company Limited, and the settlement of the Lloyd’s of London insurance market dispute; and
• advised Andersen, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and KPMG on accountancy, audit and liability matters.

He is the only non-US lawyer to be chosen following surveys of the General Counsel of Fortune 1000 companies undertaken by Fortune magazine to identify those lawyers who provide outstanding client service. He was nominated in each year from 2005 and 2009.

His external activities include:

• appointment by The Bank of England as an inspector under the Banking Act 1986
• preparing the report on “The responsibilities of Senior Management” published by The Securities and Investments Board. More recently, he participated in the Company Law Reform review and has been a member of two consultative groups set up by The Financial Services Authority in the context of its review of the Listing Rules
• Chairman of the Auditing Practices Board, having been a member of the Board and its predecessor bodies since 1986

  In the period since he has been Chairman of the APB (in 2003), the APB has issued:

  • a comprehensive suite of auditing standards (ISAs - UK & Ireland), based on the standards issued by the International Audit and Assurance Standards Board, supplemented where necessary to reflect the particular requirements of UK law and regulations,
  • the first UK standards to address the integrity, objectivity and independence of auditors (Ethical Standards for Auditors 1 to 5, and the associated standard, Provisions Available of Small Entities),
  • four standards setting out the approach to be taken by accountants providing reports for inclusion in investment circulars (SIRs 1000 to 4000), and
  • ethical standards for reporting accountants based on the Ethical Standards for Auditors (ESRA).
• membership of The Financial Reporting Council between 2004 and 2008 and a Director of its successor body, Financial Reporting Council Limited, since 2008;
  • he was a member of the FRC group chaired by Sir Robert Smith that prepared guidance for audit committees in 2003;
  • he chaired the FRC group that developed the FRC 2006 publication, 'Promoting Audit Quality'.
• participant in the Consultancy Group on Accounting and Auditing established by the Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry following the Enron and WorldCom failures
• Chairman of the Consultancy and Advisory Group to the International Ethical Standards Board for Accountants from 2006
• Richard was awarded the CBE for services to business and the law in HM The Queen's New Year Honour List 2009