Up to 10 law firms have approached the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in recent days to broach the subject of bringing deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) for their clients.

Fraud office joint head of bribery and corruption Ben Morgan said news of the first DPA, approved last week (26 November), prompted a flurry of calls from law firms seeking initial advice on whether a similar plea deal would be suitable for their clients.

The majority of firms were reluctant to name their clients at this early stage, Morgan said, but added the approaches were encouraging.

Lawyers were instead alerting the SFO to their clients’ willingness to consider an agreement and seeking advice on the next step in the process, Morgan said.

The SFO agreed the DPA, the first of its kind in the UK, with Herbert Smith Freehills and Jones Day client ICBC Standard Bank last week.

The deal was signed off by Lord Justice Leveson with the bank agreeing to pay $37m in fines to settle the bribery investigation into its dealings in Tanzania.

Speaking at The Lawyer’s Managing Risk and Mitigating Litigation summit in London on Tuesday (1 December), Morgan praised the “courage” of Standard Bank for its cooperation with the authorities, but warned the SFO will continue to prosecute companies over wrongdoing.

A number of other large British corporates, including Tesco, Rolls-Royce and Barclays, are understood to be in talks with the SFO regarding reaching a DPA to settle longstanding allegations of fraud, bribery or corruption.

Tesco has instructed Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to advise on the fraud office’s criminal investigation into accounting errors that saw the supermarket overstate its profits by £263m.

The magic circle firm has brought in a team from Kingsley Napley led by partner Stephen Parkinson to advise on the bulk of the work.

Rolls-Royce has also turned to a duo of leading firms, instructing both Debevoise & Plimpton and Slaughter and May on the SFO’s probe into allegations of bribery and corruption, which launched in 2012.

Meanwhile, Barclays is being advised by Clifford Chance on the investigation into the bank’s fundraising from Qatari investors during the financial crisis.

News surfaced in September that the SFO was giving “active consideration” to opening an inquiry into claims Lloyds Banking Group pushed companies into administration for its own financial gain. Hogan Lovells is understood to be advising the bank on legal issues relating to the allegations.