Susannah is a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills, specialising in financial crime and related regulatory work.
She advises financial institutions, corporates and professional services firms in connection with anti-corruption, financial sanctions, anti-money laundering, insider dealing/market abuse and fraud issues, both contentious and non-contentious. She was appointed as one of the UK's first anti-corruption monitors for the purposes of a company's settlement with the World Bank and Serious Fraud Office.
Susannah has been ranked as Band 1 for 'Financial Crime: Corporates' by Chambers UK from 2011 to date. Legal 500 recognises her in the Hall of Fame for Corporate Crime, and Who's Who Legal as a Thought Leader for Investigations and Business Crime Defence (Corporates). She was named in Global Investigation Review's inaugural "40 under 40" list of 'the world's leading investigations specialists' in 2014. Legal 500 2024 comments that she is: “one of the best in the area. Very knowledgeable and experienced. An original thinker and very bright indeed”.
Susannah's advice covers a spectrum of work including: technical financial crime compliance advisory work, assisting clients to develop appropriate risk-based financial crime compliance policies and procedures, advising on financial crime risk and diligence in transactional matters, conducting internal investigations for clients, and supporting clients as suspects or witnesses in external investigations. In particular, she frequently represents clients in Serious Fraud Office and Financial Conduct Authority investigations. She also represents clients in relation to regulatory and criminal mutual legal assistance and extradition matters.
Susannah is a member of the Law Society’s Money Laundering Taskforce and the City of London Law Society Corporate Crime and Corruption Committee. She is a consultant editor of the Lloyds Law Reports: Financial Crime series.
Experience & expertise
Selected matters
- acting as the independent monitor of Oxford University Press, pursuant to settlements entered into by it with the World Bank and the Serious Fraud Office in relation to corrupt conduct in East Africa
- Quindell Plc in relation to the discontinued FCA investigation and subsequent SFO investigation into its past business and accounting practices
- Gazprom Neft in two pending applications to the EU General Court for annulment of aspects of the EU's Russia/Ukraine sanctions
- a bank in respect of the UK aspects of a US DoJ/SEC investigation
- a number of global financial institutions in respect of all aspects of financial crime compliance, including anti-money laundering issues (eg in relation to due diligence, systems and controls, suspicious activity reporting and transactional matters), anti-corruption and sanctions compliance (eg in relation to compliance policies, due diligence, transactional advice, sanctions licensing, internal and external investigations), and market abuse.
- a consortium of 20 clients in relation to a six-year project to survey the anti-corruption legislation of 125 jurisdictions, to help ensure that their employees act appropriately in relation to the provision of gifts and hospitality whilst overseas.
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