Flavia Kenyon

Technology, Crypto and Digital Assets

·       Flavia has a second-to-none understanding of the tensions and opportunities present between law and technology and has been instrumental in navigating complex web3 and decentralised finance disputes

Legal 500 2025

·       Very hands-on with drafting and gets stuck in with documents and evidence. She is super helpful, taking a collaborative approach to her cases.

Chambers UK 2023

·       A known name and someone who brings assuredness to proceedings.

Chambers UK 2022

·       Strengths: Extremely intelligent and hard-working. She has a real presence in court. Chambers UK 2021

·       Flavia is a "do or die" barrister; nothing is ever done as a half measure and everything is done at pace to ensure that all stages of the case are pushed forward for the benefit of the client. Flavia is deeply committed to all of her clients and brings unswerving energy to defending clients. Flavia has the ability to assimilate the evidence in a case and scythe through the detail to the issues that are fundamental to the client. Her advocacy is tenacious but considered and bad points are left outside the courtroom.

Legal 500 2021

·       Extremely hardworking, her grasp of cases is instant and her passion for defending as if her own freedom was at stake.

Legal 500 2020

Flavia is a leading Web3, Blockchain, and AI barrister and her practice focuses on representing and advising companies at the forefront of the financial services industry’s digital transformation.

Flavia often advises on Web3 projects and blockchain-related matters and has acquired rare hands-on experience through having founded a legal-tech laboratory of her own. Flavia is often instructed at the inception of a project and regulary advises on both legal/regulatory and strategic adoption of blockchain technology for industry and e-commerce, and for the creative sector – including brands, gaming, and films.

Flavia has also particular expertise advising on the legal formation, structure, and governance of Decentralised Autonomous Organisations, (DAOs). Through her extensive work on DAOs, Flavia has mastered an understanding of and familiarity with several foreign jurisdictions in the area of company law and organisational structures. Most recently, she advised one of the biggest DAOs on the issue of where and how it could bring a lawsuit against a DAO member for an unauthorised transaction. The case involved complex and novel analysis and interpretation of the legal structure involving several entities across three jurisdictions. Flavia has also advised both for-profit and not-for profit DAOs relating to legal structures, governance smart contracts, tokenomics, regulatory compliance, dispute resolution, use of privacy tools, data security, digital identity, and reputation.

Innovation lies at the heart of Flavia’s legal practice. She combines nearly two decades of courtroom advocacy, complex litigation, and legal drafting with cutting edge research and development in technology, working alongside developers, coders, entrepreneurs, inventors, and academics. She has gained specialist training and accreditation in blockchain technology and strategy from Oxford University and in crypto-assets and financial disruption from the London School of Economics.

Flavia is ranked Tier 1 for Crypto-assets and Blockchain the Legal 500.

“Flavia has a second-to-none understanding of the tensions and opportunities present between law and technology and has been instrumental in navigating complex web3 and decentralised finance disputes”

Her recent experience includes.  

-               Advising a digital fashion marketplace on using blockchain and NFT technology in their operations, particularly in the supply chain of garments. This was in order to prove the garments’ provenance, green credentials, human-rights compliant manufacturing, and to combat counterfeiting, whilst at the same time enhancing brand reputation. 

-               Instructed by a film director to advise on the creation of an NFT campaign to coincide with the launch of the film (Confetti) in London. This was a first of its kind project where a feature film used blockchain and NFTs to promote its message globally.

-               Advised on IP/copyright protection of the underlying NFT art using actors’ images. Flavia advised on the legal framework and drafted the contract for services underpinning the creation of the NFT campaign and the contractual relationship between the film director’s Company and the NFT producer. 

-               Regulatory advice on token issuance. 

-               Advice on the regulatory framework and implementation of the Financial Markets and  

Services Act (FSMA), 2000 and 2023, and the FCA’s crypto-assets financial promotion regulatory regime.

-               Advice on the legal ambit and compliance with the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, (MiCA), and the obligations of crypto businesses that meet the definition of CASP/CAI under the Regulation.

-               Advice on the proposed regulations impacting DeFi and decentralised networks.

-               Bespoke legal and strategic advice to companies on the implementation of the Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023

-               Advice on the statutory requirement for use of a ‘reliable’ system, and what constitutes a ‘reliable’ system to ensure successful conversion from a paper document to an electronic trade document and the validity of the instrument and the transaction.

-               Instructed by an international cryptoasset tax advisory firm to conduct a comprehensive review and legal analysis of the firm’s AML policy in servicing the crypto and Web3 sectors and its compliance with MLR 2017, POCA 2002, international FATF standards, and IOSCO’s guidance on DeFi.         

Cyber

Flavia is regularly instructed to advise represent client on cyber.

She has expertise focusing on the legal and regulatory challenges arising out of the intersection of existing laws and rapidly advancing distributed ledger technology and AI, and extends to cyber fraud, cyber-attacks, crypto-assets litigation, cyber sanctions, data breaches, privacy, online harms, and deepfakes.

More widely, Flavia is a strong advocate for privacy and protection of individual rights in an increasingly intermediated and surveilled world. She has advised, written, and presented on this important topic. In 2021 she addressed the Global Cyber Summit at the International Cyber Expo held at Olympia on the power of weaponised disinformation, freedom of speech, surveillance, and online harms.

Recent experience includes:

-               R-v-AI and Others, Inner London CC.

Represented a coder in a ‘malware as a service’ It was described as the “the biggest case the PCeU has dealt with to date, and the biggest cyber phishing case so far in the UK”.

-               Represented a coder charged with a conspiracy to commit fraud by launching phishing attacks targeting banks and financial institutions in the UK and worldwide. The Defendant and others invented a piece of malware capable of launching phishing attacks and harvesting financial data stored on servers in France, USA, and Panama. The Defendants sold the malware and data to criminal organisations and were paid in bitcoin. The value of the fraud was estimated at around £59 million.

-               Deepfake litigation: R-v-G, St Alban’s CC

The case raised a novel legal issue regarding the evidential status of a ‘deepfake’ (an AI manipulated image) in a criminal trial. Flavia successfully argued against its admissibility, and requested proof of its authenticity, its evidential trail, and the metadata so that it could be forensically analysed. Following successful legal argument, the Prosecution offered no evidence.

-               Advised on the legal implications of the US OFAC’s sanctioning of the decentralised privacy enhancing tool, Tornado Cash.

Commercial Litigation

Flavia is often instructed on domestic and international company law and commercial disputes.

She advises and acts for traditional as well as blockchain-based companies and start-ups on formation, shareholders’ rights and disputes, corporate liability, director’s duties and unfair prejudice petitions under the Companies Act 2006.

Flavia is experienced and has a particular focus on advancing digital trade through the implementation of the next evolution of smart legal contracts – Ricardian contracts. She is an expert in this area and is currently working on a type of Ricardian contract to facilitate international trade.

Her matters will often include issues relating to conflict of laws, jurisdiction, immunity from jurisdiction, commercial contracts, contractual interpretation, advising on cross-jurisdiction disputes, admissibility of evidence, and the overall merits of the case. She also has experience of Disclosure Orders, Norwich Pharmacal Orders, Bankers Trust Orders, and Unexplained Wealth Orders.

Flavia advises on high-stakes disputes before the English courts and in international arbitration involving sovereign States and state-owned property. Her practice covers the full State-immunity spectrum—jurisdictional challenges, waiver and submission, service on States, and immunity from execution—often where enforcement against State assets is in issue.

Recent experience includes.

-               Advised on an international group action in the oil and gas sector, a $30 million drilling operation in Tashkent, (Uzbekistan), involving 37 engineers against four UK company directors who employed them. The claim was for breach of contract, fraudulent misrepresentation, and unlawful means conspiracy against a background of money laundering, and breach of sanctions.

-               Advised the Midwifery Council on matters of international law and comparative interpretation of the UK law and the Romanian law on bribery arising in a fitness to practise litigation.

-               Instructed in a shareholders’ petition to the High Court under the unfair prejudice jurisdiction.

Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)

Flavia acts in matters pertaining to climate change and environmental impact.

She often advises and helps both traditional and blockchain-based companies navigate the complex ESG legal landscape in order to comply with their disclosure duties and reporting obligations.

As part of her regulatory practice, Flavia advises blockchain-based companies, CASPs and CAIs on how to implement and comply with the new, mandatory White Paper requirements and the environmental protection mission set out in Recital 7 of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, (MiCA).

Flavia is currently advising on a blockchain carbon tokenomics model that will revolutionise the voluntary carbon market of the tourism industry. The pioneering project seeks to transform emissions measurement and carbon trading in tourism with a three-tier-token-based system and a novel legal structure of co-modal entities.

Fraud (Criminal)

R-v-SD and Others, Southwark Crown Court 

Insolvency trial of seven company directors charged with a string of fraud offences under section 993 of the Companies Act 2006. The defendants, operating under false identities, made use of multiple companies dishonestly intending to defraud creditors.

R-v- JO and Another, Guildford Crown Court 

SFO trial of fraudulent trading, contrary to section 993 of the Companies Act 2006 worth £1.9 million. The Defendants set up two companies selling investments in rare earth metals. At trial the investments were proven to be a sham through a series of sophisticated transactions and a network of corrupt brokers acting as agents for the Defendants.

R-v-N, Northampton Crown Court 

SFO prosecution of fraudulent trading and unauthorized regulated activity.  Flavia represented a trader who set up an organisation trading as an investments club, which gradually became a Ponzi scheme with 180 investors and over £2.6 million in debt. The trial required complex expert evidence in respect of trading on FXCM, the foreign exchange market.

R-v- C and Others, (Operation Academy), Blackfriars Crown Court 

Flavia represented the first Defendant charged together with seven others in a £3.5 million conspiracy to make and supply articles to use in fraud, and a conspiracy to defraud financial institutions. The conspiracy involved the making and selling of a highly sophisticated skimming device capable of storing data of over 20,000 bank accounts at a time.  Flavia’s client was the only defendant to be acquitted at trial.

R-v-DR, Central Criminal Court

SFO prosecution of fraud by false representation involving a £923 million claim for injury and damages arising out of an accident at work. The original claim started off as genuine and as it progressed through the civil courts it became vitiated by fraud with the Defendant exaggerating the extent of his injuries and the medical help he required. Despite the large sum, Flavia successfully argued for a short custodial sentence of 8 months.

Financial Crime

R-v- MM and Others, Isleworth Crown Court

Flavia acted for the main defendant in an international, high- profile conspiracy to launder the proceeds from the biggest heist in the UK: £26 million worth of jewellery and watches stolen from the houses of Tamara Ecclestone, Frank Lampard, and the former owner of Leicester City FC. After a two months trial, Flavia’s client was acquitted.

R-v- OA and Others, Southwark Crown Court

Flavia acted in a trial arising out of an insider dealing fraud at the Metro Bank in Holborn. The proceeds were laundered through a sophisticated network of shell companies, and business accounts. Flavia’s client was the only defendant to be acquitted at trial.

R-v-ED and Others, (Operation Ragule), Blackfriars Crown Court 

The trial of an international organised criminal group said to be part of a wider conspiracy to launder money through Hawala banking in the Middle East. After a month long trial, Flavia’s client was the only defendant to be acquitted.

R-v- I and Others, (Operation Heddon), Southwark Crown Court 

Flavia represented a Barclays bank manager charged with conspiracy to commit a large property fraud and conspiracy to money laundering. The two conspiracies overlapped: one involved stealing properties by forging title deeds at the Land Registry, the other, laundering the money from properties sales through accounts at Barclays Bank.