Slaughter and May has been instructed by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to defend it against claims totalling as much as £300m resulting from its failed investigation into businessmen and brothers Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz.

The SFO today (28 February) confirmed the appointment of the magic circle firm, which comes after the collapse of the long-running investigation into the brothers for suspected impropriety in relation to the 2008 failure of Icelandic bank Kaupthing.