Nichola Higgins > Matrix Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Nichola Higgins

020 7404 3447 nicholahiggins@matrixlaw.co.uk View profile

Position

Nichola Higgins is a leading practitioner in the field of financial and corporate crime, she has defended, investigated and prosecuted some of the most complex and challenging allegations of corruption and fraud, both domestic and overseas, in recent years.

Career

Financial Crime

Nichola’s experience of complex and multi-jurisdictional matters of corruption and fraud includes:

• First junior, since 2015, for a global engineering company, in a multi-phase SFO prosecution for international corruption. This seminal case was one of the SFO’s largest and longest running corporate prosecutions for corruption. It raised issues of corporate liability, jurisdiction, prosecution appeals, good/bad character of corporate entities, and, most notably, it was the first prosecution of a corporate in the absence of its directing mind.  These issues have been reported separately at R. v. Alstom Network UK Ltd [2019] EWCA Crim 1318; R. v. A Ltd, [2016] 4 W.L.R. 176; and   v. AIL [2016] Q.B. 763;
• Acting for the Serious Fraud Office, since 2015, in a £30 million multi-jurisdictional and multi-handed “sustainable” investment fraud;
• Junior advocate in a multi-handed, boiler-room fraud;
• Instructed as sole junior for the Financial Conduct Authority in a prosecution relating to a deposit taking scheme;
• An application to set aside fourteen account freezing orders, combined value of £12 million, on behalf of a director/beneficial owner of a network of international companies;
• Second junior for the SFO for both the investigation and trial of an international conspiracy to corrupt spanning a decade and involving the payment of $30 million of alleged bribes;
• Junior counsel for the SFO in a fraud to cheat a private Swiss bank of €22 million perpetrated by a City equity partner and his client;
• Junior counsel for the SFO in the investigation and prosecution of a CEO of a London reinsurance company for a conspiracy to make corrupt payments to high ranking officials in Latin America.

Corporate Advice

Nichola advises companies on their compliance procedures and has unique experience of advising an international corporation engaged in global projects on the practical features of the ‘adequate procedures’ defence under the Bribery Act 2010.

She has conducted and advised upon internal investigations, both national and cross-border, drawing upon her experience of multi-jurisdictional SFO investigations. Her experience includes:

• Advising a sovereign wealth fund on the merits of a private prosecution;
• Instructed alone on behalf of nine senior directors of a global parent company threatened with prosecution by Companies House;
• An internal investigation on behalf of a billion pound hospitality company;
• Advising a multi-national on various matters of criminal and international law arising from the salvage of a celebrated wreck;
• Advising a UK board regarding concurrent civil and criminal proceedings in Spain and linked MLA requests in the UK;
• Instructed to advise a FTSE 100 extractive company in relation to its investigation by the Serious Fraud Office for suspected corruption offences;
• Instructed alone to review an internal investigation for a large multi-national concerning the diversion of some €30 million from an engineering project;
• Advised a French blue-chip (CAC40) multi-national with complex global operations on its Bribery Act obligations for six months in 2014. While based in Paris, Nichola led a team advising on adequate procedures and related issues.

Other Notable Criminal Work

Nichola has wide experience of appellate cases, judicial review and organised crime. She is regularly instructed, both alone and as a led junior, where novel or complex issues of law arise.

Recent instructions include:

• A multi-handed, six year conspiracy to pervert the course of justice;
• A conspiracy to import/ supply class A, challenging targeted equipment interference under the Investigatory Powers Act (an “EncroChat” case);
• Securing the release of a vulnerable group of Jersey national forcibly quarantined in a hotel in Tenerife following an outbreak of COVID-19;
• Instructed to defend allegations of dissemination of terrorist publications.

Extradition

Nichola advises and appears for requested persons facing extradition at both first instance and on appeal to the High Court. Significant cases include:

• Islam v. Cyprus Represented a person wanted for extradition by Cyprus. The case required legal argument on the construction and specificity of the European Arrest Warrant.

Memberships

Nichola is a member of the editorial board of Lloyds Law Reports: Financial Crime and contributes regularly to that publication.