She is so thorough and has that gravitas and respect which is properly earned.
Chambers UK 2026, Financial Crime
Nicola is excellent in all situations.
Legal 500 2026, Business and Regulatory Crime (including global investigations)
Nicola is a dynamic and commercial barrister who regularly secures repeat clients due to her skills with them.
Chambers UK 2026, Financial Crime
Nicola's confident, pragmatic style is a favourite of clients and judges alike.
Legal 500 2026, Fraud: Crime
Her case preparation is second to none and means that in a trial you know that every angle has been looked at adn the client's case is in excellent hands.
Legal 500 2026, Business and Regulatory Crime (including global investigations)
She is calm, measured and reassuring for clients.
Chambers UK 2026, Financial Crime
Nicola Howard is exceptional and fights clients' corners very well.
Chambers UK 2025, Financial Crime
Nicola is a really good jury advocate.
Chambers UK 2025, Financial Crime
She's economical in cross-examination and has a good nose for where the case might be won and lost.
Chambers UK 2025, Financial Crime
Nicola is excellent with all manner of clients and communicates with all core parts of the case.
Chambers UK 2025, Financial Crime
She gives no-nonsense advice.
Chambers UK 2025, Financial Crime
Nicola is authoritative, yet serene and reassuring.
Legal 500 2025, Fraud: Crime
She is pragmatic and garners a client's trust with great skill.
Legal 500 2025, Fraud: Crime
An advocate with a commanding presence.
Legal 500 2025, Fraud: Crime
Nicola is a fantastic advocate to work with, a view shared with all of my clients that instruct her. This is mainly due to her relentless approach to thorough preparation of cases and an ability to really focus on what's at the heart of a client's case and therefore the route to an acquittal.
Legal 500 2025, Business and Regulatory Crime (Including Global Investigations)
Nicola is a superb fraud lawyer.
Legal 500 2024, Business and Regulatory Crime (Including Global Investigations)
She is robust and her judgement is first class.
Legal 500 2024, Business and Regulatory Crime (Including Global Investigations)
She knows when and how to work with the prosecution to further the interests of her clients.
Legal 500 2024, Business and Regulatory Crime (Including Global Investigations)
Nicola is a first-rate silk. She is exceptionally bright and has an astonishing attention to detail.
Legal 500 2024, Fraud: Crime
She is a superb jury advocate, great with lay clients, and her written work is excellent.
Legal 500 2024, Fraud: Crime
A really solid performer - reliable and great perspective on cases.
Legal 500 2023, Business and Regulatory Crime (Including Global Investigations)
She gets on excellently with clients and judges and gains their confidence easily. First rate.
Legal 500 2023, Business and Regulatory Crime (Including Global Investigations)
Nicola is a superb advocate, great strategist, brilliant with clients, great on her feet and a first rate silk for fraud.
Legal 500 2023, Fraud: Crime
A great advocate for clients who is on top of everything. Her closing speeches are superb.
Chambers UK 2022
A great advocate for her clients and brilliantly intelligent.
Chambers UK 2022
She has a fearless approach in the way she defends clients in court.
Chambers UK 2022
Nicola is a technically brilliant, hardworking advocate. She is a great tactician in court, and is great at putting clients at ease.
Legal 500 2022, Fraud Crime
Nicola has always been a confident and fearless advocate who is able to build excellent relationships with clients in what are often stressful and difficult cases where the stakes could not be higher.
Legal 500 2022, Business and Regulatory Crime
Clients form a trusting bond with Nicola and which is backed up by excellent representation both in and out of court.
Legal 500 2022, Business and Regulatory Crime
A thorough and efficient barrister who is friendly but tough. She is a very good jury advocate who adopts a down-to-earth, clear and common-sense approach.
Chambers UK 2021
She has a good judgement and is excellent with clients. Very technically knowledgeable and a good advocate.
Chambers UK 2021
She is completely on top of her cases and she is lovely to work with. She is enormously well respected at the Bar.
Chambers UK 2021
Her advice and approach to cases is measured and extremely thorough.
Legal 500 2021, Business and Regulatory Crime
A silk of imperturbable yet firm authority. Nicola has a forensic approach to her work, she is able to anticipate at the outset the likely outcome of the case this is huge asset. She is a fearless advocate in court, she is great at dealing with lay clients and is excellent with her written work. She is also user friendly for solicitors, always available to offer advice.
Legal 500 2021, Fraud
She brings a sense of calm to a chaotic situation.
Legal 500 2020
She is a calm and confident advocate.
Legal 500 2020
Always very practical, good with clients and very well prepared.
Chambers UK 2020
She's technically brilliant.
Chambers UK 2020
She is very enthusiastic and capable of mixing it with the bolshiest of prosecutors.
Chambers UK
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.
Chambers UK
Nicola Howard is a fantastic advocate with a technical mind.
Chambers UK
She offers very good client care, is really good on paper and is very jury-friendly.
Chambers UK
A lawyer who is always on top of her brief.
Legal 500
Wins increasing court backing due to her communicative client manner and her skill in swiftly amassing evidence.
Legal 500
Extremely talented.
Chambers UK
Subtle and effective in multi-handed trials.
Legal 500
An ideal junior for dealing with complex cases and demanding clients.
Chambers UK
Extremely good on the organisation front, she shows great attention to detail and is firm when clients need to have a little pressure applied.
Chambers UK
She is lovely to work with, clearly respected and a consummate junior who gets on very well with judges in London.
Chambers UK
She provides robust and clear advice.
Legal 500
She specialises in fraud matters with a great early command of the case papers.
Legal 500

Nicola Howard KC

Barrister

Instructed in criminal defence cases. Predominantly in large scale complex fraud cases, bribery, money laundering, substantial confiscation and corporate offending.

A tremendously impressive practitioner.Chambers UK

Articles & Publications

Articles prepared for Counsel Magazine and Legal Week, Student Supplement (The Telegraph).

Appointments

Recorder, South Eastern Circuit
Certified Fraud Examiner (ACFE)

Associated Work

Registered with Middle Temple as a Pupil Supervisor
Chairman of the Young Barristers Committee for England and Wales (2003)
Elected member of the Bar council
Member of the Criminal Bar Association
Speaker at the Commonwealth Law conference in Melbourne, Australia 2003
Delegate at the American bar Conference 2003
Speaker at the World Referral Bars conference in Capetown 2004
Speaker on Money laundering, Deferred Prosecution Agreement and S7 Bribery Act
Speaker at Cambridge University Economic Crime Symposium 2018

Professional Memberships

Proceeds of Crime Lawyers Association (POCLA)
Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers (ARDL)
Member of the Female Fraud Forum (FFF)
The Fraud Lawyers Association (FLA)
Financial Services Lawyer Association
Member of the Criminal Bar Association
Member of the South Eastern Circuit
British Association for Sport and Law (BASL)
Women in Criminal Law

R v X: The Financial Conduct Authority prosecuted those running a public limited company for trading whilst insolvent, fraud on the pension fund, and misleading pension regulators.
R v W: The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) prosecuted the owners of the company for bribery relating to tenders and contracts following a Defferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA).
R v G: The Financial Conduct Authority are prosecuting an individual running a company engaged in mortgage, credit, and sale and rent back agreements.
R v W: Successfully represented the defendant in a private prosecution in a complex international fraud.
R v G: The SFO are prosecuting an individual for running a company supplying ake aircraft parts/certification.
R v C: The SFO prosecuted the company for loans made to a football club from the local council.
R v N: The police investigated corruption in the West End.
R v X: The SFO investigated pre-charge advice regarding international contracts and bribery of public officials.
R v R: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) prosecuted serving military personnel for fraud conducted within the MOD military payment system.
R v W: The company was prosecuted for investment fraud.
Companies House v S: GFG Alliance Steel Companies was prosecuted for breaches of director duties.
R v S: The company was prosecuted for romance fraud linked to high-value money laundering using the Hawaka payment system.
R v G: Bribery case concerning inducement to award contracts from Korea.
R v G: Defrauding approximately $180 million from a Russian banking group through fraudulent trades in emerging markets warrants. Case spanning over 20 jurisdictions including Moscow, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Madrid and Amsterdam.
R v O: Inside person employed by John Lewis, part of an Organised crime group who defrauded Michael Caine and cloned his identity.
R v S: Lawyer charged with referring and organising cash for crash clients whilst organising storage, garage and personal injury services.
R v X: VAT refund scheme fraud using the form 407 involving Harrods.
R v K: Civil contempt in High court arising our of false claim.
R v H: Ex-police officer involved in carbon credit investment fraud and money laundering through Northern Cyprus.
R v M: Financial advisor of a group of companies relating to a vat fraud arising out of mis-charging in a chain of high end Bars in Knightsbridge.
R v C: Vishing fraud – leader of organisation used banking information to defraud £113 million pounds. The money was laundered from the UK through Dubai and Pakistan. Extremely complex case with almost every taskforce in the UK working on a different aspect of the case.
R v D: Bank official who had been providing information to an organised crime group assisting to commit huge fraud from solicitors and other companies.
R v B: VAT fraud using surplus payments scheme and an employee of HMRC to facilitate payments.
R v Z: Multi-handed VAT licensing fraud in the cage fighting industry concerning Alex Reid. This involved multi jurisdictional, covert, computer and telephone evidence.
R v D & Others: Representing an accountant charged with a large scale factoring fraud. Supplier to supermarket chains. Barclays commercial Unit entered into a factoring agreement. Barclays discovered £22million debtor’s ledger was irrecoverable and that much of the debt had been fictitious. Fresh air invoicing fraud.
R v C: Representing Company Director charged with Carbon Credit fraud. Operation Carp is directly linked to Operation Tulip box with overlapping companies and personnel. The end participant was often either BP or RBS. The case crossed many borders with the company formation agency being based in New Zealand, the German registry being where emissions registration took place and money being laundered through a network of complicated offshore accounts based in the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong.
R v I: Representing Company Director relating to Insolvency proceedings, Bankruptcy Restriction Order and Fraud. Case spanning many years. Director running multi-million pound legitimate company. Historical offences.
R v SA & Others - Operation Euripus: Extradited defendant, company secretary charged with multi-million MTIC fraud. Series of previous trials of other defendants.
R v MD & Others: £80 million conspiracy to defraud and forge documents in relation to a well know identity documentation web based organisation.

Advisory

RE X: Instructed to provide specialist strategic advice to an individual, pre-charge and regarding FSA investigation and interviews with respect to LIBOR and other benchmark investigations.
RE A: Instructed to provide pre charge advice regarding restraint and Bribery allegations regarding Oil and gas industry CEO.
RE B: Instructed to provide pre charge advice regarding bribery and corruption in Central London establishments.
RE R: Instructed to advise corporate re self-reporting and Deferred Prosecution Agreement.
RE D: Instructed to advise on production order in relation to LAP and LPP.
RE M: Instructed to advise regarding SRA disciplinary investigations.

Proceeds of Crime Act

R v D: Restraint re bank account transfer.
R v RM: Money Laundering – diamond fraud.
R v P: Money laundering – ticketing fraud.
R v X: Money laundering through Chinese money exchange fraud.
R v F: Money laundering and concealment of funds. Case centred around the concealment and dissipation of substantial assets arising from a confiscation order under the CJA 6 years previously.
R v K: Instructed post trial to deal with Confiscation proceedings following a nine month trial relating to the large scale importation of Class A drugs.
R v P: brought in as junior to do confiscation proceedings, benefit and realisable assets over £6 million.
R v B: solicitor charged with money laundering.

R v Edward Campbell: Historical sexual abuse allegation by daughter, substantial issues of bad character. In 1974 the defendant killed three of his teenage children and caused serious harm to the remaining two, one of whom had given birth to a child a year before that the defendant was alleged to have fathered.
R v Nicholas Peppiett & Others: Multi-handed conspiracy to supply drugs. Observation and cell site based Operation for the national supply of drugs.
R v Ceon Hewitt: High profile East London gang murder on New Years Eve in Hatton Garden. The victim was shot at point blank range 3 times in the street.
R v Scott Bradley: Large scale drug importation linked to an historic importation operation.
R v Robert Lawrence: Brutal murder of a man in front of his wife and sister. Complex cut-throat with multiplicity of cross defendant bad character issues. The prosecution witnesses have subsequently been convicted of terrorist offences, lack of disclosure. Case awaiting Court of Appeal hearing.
R v Papworth: Leading junior in drug importation.
R v Brown: Leading junior in conspiracy to rob.
R v Heathorn: Conspiracy to supply Firearms, Heroine and Cocaine to Undercover officers over a 2 year period.
R v Santharatnam: Conspiracy to murder – Multi handed Tamil Murder.
R v Duffell: Child murder.
R v Bush: Conspiracy to murder.
R v Manton: Armed robberies – case subject to reference by the Attorney General.
R v Ross: Official Secrets Act case in which a journalist faced charges of corruption, having received confidential police documents relating to terrorism and celebrity crimes.
R v Nazham (reported): Authority dealing with indications prior to Goodyear from the Court of Appeal.
R v Huber: Fathers 4 Justice motorway demonstration on the Blackwall Tunnel.