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Laura Ford

She/HerPartner
Laura is a supremely effective investigations lawyer…with a deep understanding of relevant legal and regulatory issues and a highly developed investigative skill set.
— VP Global Investigations, Global Retail Business
London
About

Laura leads DLA Piper’s Corporate Crime, Investigations & Compliance practice in the UK. With nearly two decades of experience in handling complex and multi-jurisdictional investigations, Laura advises clients on serious misconduct issues across the areas of bribery, money laundering, fraud, facilitation of tax evasion, human rights and others. She represents clients in matters concerning key regulatory and enforcement bodies including the Serious Fraud Office, HMRC, and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Laura also provides strategic counsel to clients in the design and implementation of their global compliance programmes - from risk assessment to policy development and training - and conducts due diligence and investigations in the context of corporate transactional activity. She has extensive experience in conducting investigations and compliance mandates across a range of sectors, including consumer goods, energy, life sciences, defence, logistics, retail, gambling, property and others.

Laura is Deputy Money Laundering Reporting Officer for DLA Piper in the UK. She was recognised as a leading investigations lawyer in Global Investigations Review’s “100 remarkable women in investigations” list for 2021 and as a “Future Leader” in the 2025 edition of Who’s Who Legal: Investigations.

Areas of FocusConsumer Goods, Food and RetailEnergy and Natural ResourcesIndustrialsLitigation, Arbitration and InvestigationsRegulatory and Government Affairs
Professional QualificationsSolicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales

EXPERIENCE

  • Advising a multi-national beverage business in connection with an audit-driven investigation concerning suspicions of false accounting and other financial misconduct across multiple jurisdictions.
  • Advising a client in the life sciences sector in connection with an investigation into suspected breach of Sunshine laws in France.
  • Advising a horticulture client in connection with a human rights investigation concerning allegations of security guard violence in an African nation.
  • Advising a US public corporation and its UK subsidiary in the industrial, aerospace and defence sector in connection with a self-report to the SFO concerning a multi-million dollar fraud and false accounting.
  • Advising an engineering, procurement and construction client on a large scale SFO investigation into bribery and corruption in a Nigerian liquefied natural gas project.
  • Successfully defending Thomas Kalaris in one of the UK’s largest fraud trials concerning Barclays’ capital raising and related payments to Qatar in 2008, resulting in acquittal on all charges in March 2020.
  • Advising one of the world’s largest retailers in connection with investigations into wide-ranging misconduct by a senior manager, fraud, false accounting and the timely recognition of supplier funding.
  • Advising the former Editor of the UK tabloid newspaper the News of the World in connection with the Leveson Inquiry and police investigations into allegations of phone hacking and conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
  • Advising numerous clients on compliance with the UK's "failure to prevent" legislation, across bribery, fraud and facilitation of tax evasion, including in the design and implementation of compliance programmes to ensure "adequate" and "reasonable" procedures are in place.
Education
  • College of Law, Birmingham, Legal Practice Course, 2004
  • University of Leeds, Law LLB, 2003

Prior Experience

  • 2006 to date, DLA Piper

Memberships And Affiliations

Laura Ford is a Solicitor registered with the Law Society of England & Wales

My latest insights

Events

CIRCLE: Managing sanctions, export control, national security and cyber risk

3 November 2026 .2 minute read

Publication

Corporate criminal liability just got wider

5 June 2026 .4 minute read

Events

CIRCLE: A global investigations crisis management workshop

19 March 2026 .2 minute read

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+44 207 349 0296
+44 7971 142 238

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