Nicola has risen to prominence in legal circles through her outstanding expertise in fraud, civil recovery and business crime and her experience of leading some of the UK's most important, contentious and demanding cases.
She has a reputation for leading the most involved and sizeable commercial and financial disputes and a recognised track record regarding cases involving the financial services markets. Nicola’s expertise in devising preventative measures and in conducting internal investigations has led to her being in demand as an advisor to corporates and large organisations.
She has been praised by The Chambers UK Guide for her diligence and skill at working through huge amounts of material. Her ability to excel on the most complex cases has led to it repeatedly highlighting her as one of the best in her field. Chambers has described Nicola as “excellent’’ and “an absolute first-rate solicitor’’. Its 2023 edition says she “knows exactly how to run and manage a complex criminal case’’ and also emphasises her growing reputation in civil recovery, fraud-related Proceeds of Crime Act and cross-border matters.
The Legal 500 has called Nicola “a litigator of high calibre’’ with “frightening intellect’’ and has said she is “never fazed no matter how complex the case.’’ The Legal 500’s 2023 edition names her as one of the very best in her field, which it has done for a number of years, and says she is “tenacious’’ and “a great litigator’’.
Her specialities include investment fraud, mortgage fraud, money laundering and bribery and corruption cases. She is heavily involved in multinational investigations into investment frauds that span continents and involve a wide variety of commodities and securities, ranging from conservation-related products to forex.
Her caseload includes some of the UK’s largest pension liberation fraud and mortgage fraud investigations, the biggest investment fraud prosecutions, multi-million pound Proceeds of Crime Act cases and major global energy sector corruption investigations involving international agencies, including the Serious Fraud Office. It also includes cases that require extensive knowledge of deferred prosecution agreements (DPA’s) as well as investigations into large-scale fraud and bribery allegations in a wide variety of countries.
She has led teams on some of the most notable fraud cases and defended clients in actions brought by the European Commission’s anti-fraud body OLAF over alleged improper use of EU funds.
Her expertise, attention to detail and ability to rapidly and accurately assess the most detailed and difficult circumstances has led to her being in increasing demand to conduct internal investigations on behalf of corporate clients. Her judgement in such investigations has proved invaluable in helping clients identify and remove a problem with minimal financial and reputational damage.
Nicola is also part of Rahman Ravelli’s international arbitration team. She provides effective representation for clients at all stages of high-value arbitration cases, involving a wide range of business sectors and jurisdictions.
