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Nicola Phillips guides her clients in all areas of commercial litigation. From providing crisis management and legal advice to clients facing cyberattacks to pursuing injunctive relief for victims of fraud, Nicola’s practice has a strong focus on urgent and critical support.

Nicola has a diverse practice, advising on all aspects of civil litigation, and vast experience with high court litigation as well as alternative dispute resolution. She manages large compliance investigations and has experience acting for both regulators and large financial institutions responding to governmental enforcement enquiries. Nicola also has significant experience with large, complex civil frauds and regularly obtains injunctive relief to assist with asset preservation. Her other practice areas include asset-based lending, trade finance, infrastructure, energy, insurance, and employment-related disputes.

Businesses affected by the Strait of Hormuz crisis are likely to be navigating both sides of the contractual liability equation: seeking to enforce protections while simultaneously trying to limit their own exposure. This balancing act will feel familiar to those who managed supply chain disruptions during the Covid pandemic or in response to Russian sanctions.

The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has published details of a £390,000 penalty it imposed on ADI, an Irish subsidiary of Apple Inc., on 19 March 2026. The penalty relates to two payments totalling approximately £635,000 made in 2022 to Okko LLC, a sanctioned Russian app developer, for App Store revenue. Although the

In November 2024, the UK Government introduced regulations which granted its financial sanctions regulator – the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI”) – greater intelligence gathering and enforcement powers. Our previous blog post on these amendments can be found here.

The changes included the extension of mandatory financial sanctions reporting obligations (“

The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI”) has imposed a monetary penalty of £465,000 against a multinational law firm’s Russian office (the “Russian Office”) for breaching UK financial sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.  This is the first time OFSI has enforced against a law

As they have on each previous anniversary, the EU and UK released new sanctions against Russia on February 24, 2025, to mark the three-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For the first time, the United States did not do the same, electing to issue a limited set of Iran-related sanctions on the anniversary

To kick-start 2025, the UK’s recently established Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation (“OTSI”) has published two related guidance notes for UK exporters on Russian trade sanctions evasion and diversion.

First, Countering Russian sanctions evasion – guidance for exporters seeks to support UK exporters and manufacturers in identifying Russian evasion practices and mitigating the

The UK Government has passed new amending sanctions regulations which grants its financial sanctions regulator – the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI”) – greater intelligence gathering and enforcement powers, and enables OFSI to deal with licensing applications more efficiently.   

The majority of the amendments introduced by The Sanctions (EU Exit) (Miscellaneous

An overview on new Russian sanctions and export controls issued by the European Union, focusing on anti-circumvention measures and the Russian financial, military, and LNG industries.

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