Profile

Nicola Howard

Barrister - Queen’s Counsel,
25 Bedford Row

My Contact Information

25 Bedford Row
London
Work: 02070671500

Social Links

Chapter Location

London

Bio

Nicola Howard is a leading silk specialising in commercial and business crime. She acts on behalf of company officers, SME’s and high net worth individuals involving allegations of Bribery, Corruption, Fraud and Money Laundering.

Nicola also undertakes complex advisory work and is consistently praised for being an innovative tactician and providing practical advice when assisting in the early stages of an investigation or surrounding financial crime issues.

Nicola works closely with lawyers in other jurisdictions to resolve international cases.

She is well known for her client friendly manner and excellent judgement.  She is respected by her opponents and the Judiciary alike. Nicola is additionally a Certified Fraud Examiner and sits as a Recorder in the Crown Court.

 

She has recently been instructed to advise:

  • a company regarding self reporting and a Deferred Prosecution Agreement.
  • on privilege following Production Orders in various sectors.
  • an Oil Company CEO regarding restraint proceedings having been flown to a different continent to lead a committee of American and African lawyers.
  • upon drafting representations to regulator.
  • local government regarding transaction, AML, Anti Bribery and Corruption policies.

 

Recent Notable Cases

She has been instructed  in numerous cases prosecuted by the SFO, HMRC and other agencies.

R v G - Professor and company owner charged with Corruption under the 1906 Act. High net worth individual, inventor of seismic instruments.  Allegation of making payments to induce a South Korean Professor and government official to show favour in the allocation of multi-million dollar contracts.  Proceedings across jurisdictions. SFO instructed 3 counsel, huge quantities of material served of a scientific, extremely technical and complex nature. Vast quantities of disclosure arising from civil proceedings.

 

R V C – High net worth individual working for a Commercial Real Estate Broker. Allegation of moving huge quantities of cash out of the country using student accounts and money being exchanged from China. The money amounted to in excess of £12 million. £500000 was seized on searches. This case was based on the Anwoir principles.  The evidence included ‘WeChat’ conversations and recordings from custody pre trial.. Multi-handed complex money laundering through multiple jurisdictions and accounts.

R v G – The case spanned over 20 jurisdictions including Moscow, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Madrid and Amsterdam.   The evidence related to the defrauding of approximately $180 million from a Russian banking group; through fraudulent trades in emerging market warrants using Threadneedle Asset Management.

 

Recent Quotes from Chambers UK include:

“Whenever things need to be focused or put in perspective, she is excellent at analysing things in a rational way. Her decision- making and judgement are phenomenal"

“She’s technically brilliant”

“Always very practical, good with clients and very well prepared”

“She brings a sense of calm to a chaotic situation”

“She provides robust and clear advice”

“She is a calm and confident advocate”

 

 Associated Work

Speaker at Cambridge University Economic Crime Symposium 2018

Speaker on Money laundering, Deferred Prosecution Agreement and S7 Bribery Act

Speaker at the World Referral Bars Conference (Capetown)

Speaker at the Commonwealth Law Conference (Melbourne, Australia)

Delegate at the American Bar Conference

Former Chairman of the Young Barristers Committee for England and Wales

Former Elected member of the Bar council

Member of the Criminal Bar Association

Registered with Middle Temple as a Pupil Supervisor

Practice Areas

  • Corporate Crime