Here’s a high-profile game of legal poker that’s got commentators excited.

BAE Systems is facing a dramatic showdown with the Serious Fraud Office over bribery charges. As the SFO tries to decide whether or not to prosecute, A&O and Linklaters have been negotiating on BAE’s behalf with SFO case controllers.

It is understood that BAE would like to settle the case through a plea bargain but its management have a legal duty not to hand over cash or damage the reputation of the firm unless their lawyers advise them that the SFO  has an overwhelming case says the BBC . If a compromise is not reached, the SFO will not want to be seen to back down having had its reputation battered in a previous run-in with BAE.

Any decision to prosecute would then require the formal consent of Lady Scotland, the attorney general (still in a spot of bother herself). The politicised nature of the attorney general’s position compromised a previous SFO attempt to investigate BAE’s Saudi arms deals when Tony Blair’s government intervened in the interest of national security avoiding national embarrassment.

BAE Systems faces bribery charges [BBC]
Fraud watchdog poised to decide on BAE bribery prosecution [The Guardian]