Hughes Hubbard Wins GIR Award for Airbus Investigation

October 23, 2020 — Hughes Hubbard won “Most Important Development in the Practice or Law of International Investigations” at Global Investigations Review’s sixth annual GIR Awards on Oct. 22 for its representation of Airbus in its historic settlement to successfully resolve bribery and corruption allegations.

HHR was also named for the third year in a row to the GIR 100, a guide to the world’s best firms for cross-border investigations. Rankings for the annual guide are based on extensive research, including the number of active cases, how prominent those cases are and hours billed by the firm on investigations.

In January, France-based Airbus reached a settlement with authorities in the U.S, France, and the U.K. to resolve parallel criminal investigations for alleged bribery offenses and arms control violations. According to GIR, the case set a new high-water mark for international cooperation as the first publicly documented case where authorities from the U.S., France, and the U.K. coordinated their investigations and subsequent resolutions. All three jurisdictions recognized the importance of the internal due diligence review, the enhancement of Airbus’ internal compliance measures, and remedial actions taken as critical factors supporting the resolution.

HHR’s internal investigation spanned five years and dozens of countries. The investigation provided the company with crucial insight into the scope of the alleged misconduct and was instrumental in the robust enhancement of compliance measures in response to the compliance risks identified.

Kevin Abikoff, Michael Huneke, Neil Oxford, and Dan McLaughlin were recognized on behalf of the firm and its Anti-Corruption and Internal Investigations team.