Sarah Lambert-Porter

Jump to:

Sarah Lambert-Porter is a senior attorney in Ropes & Gray’s litigation and enforcement practice group, based in London.

Sarah’s practice focuses primarily on financial crime including bribery and corruption, terrorist financing, money laundering, fraud, and other misconduct and regulatory failings. She has substantial experience advising financial institutions in relation to internal investigations as well as complex cross-border contentious regulatory matters and criminal investigations and prosecutions.

Sarah also has considerable experience advising regulated firms on the UK's Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR), having been seconded to a global financial institution to assist with the design and implementation of controls in advance of the SMCR’s entry into force, and advised several other leading financial institutions regarding their SMCR governance arrangements.

Sarah is also a member of the firm’s global ESG, CSR, business and human rights practice group and advises clients in relation to ESG matters, including the UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015, and the EU Whistleblowing Directive.

Sarah joined Ropes & Gray in 2018 from a Magic Circle firm in London.

Experience

Advising several US-listed multinationals (across various industry sectors) in relation to the EU Whistleblowing Directive and assorted EU Member States’ implementing legislation.
Advising a number of private equity clients in assessing and complying with their reporting obligations under applicable anti-money laundering laws and regulations.
Advising a global commodities firm in relation to a whistleblowing report, conducting a related internal investigation, and engaging with a UK regulator following self-disclosure.
Advising multinational corporations in connection with their Modern Slavery Act 2015 policies and annual statements.
Advising individual employees of a global financial institution in respect of their compelled interviews by the FCA in connection with its investigation into concerns about the financial institution’s anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and financial crime compliance systems and controls.
Advising a syndicate of underwriters in relation to the financial crime risks involved in a NYSE IPO, and related pre-IPO acquisition, and pre-acquisition financing matters.
Advising an individual employee of a global financial institution in respect of a compelled interview by the FCA in connection with its investigation into concerns about the financial institution’s sanctions-related policies, procedures, and systems and controls.
Advising a global financial institution on a complex cross-border investigation involving the SEC, DOJ, FCA and SFO into potential money laundering and bribery offences.

Experience prior to joining Ropes & Gray:

Advising a global financial institution on a complex cross-border investigation involving the SEC, DOJ, FCA and SFO into potential money laundering and bribery offences.
Advising several global financial institutions on the implementation of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, including a nine month secondment to one of them, in 2015.
Advising a US-based multinational corporation active in the pharmaceutical/medical devices sector on a pan-European anti-bribery and corruption compliance program.
Advising an international energy company in relation to anti-bribery and corruption, sanctions and anti-money laundering regulations ahead of its planned IPO/London Stock Exchange listing. This included designing a suite of ethics and anti-bribery and corruption policies, procedures and controls.
Advising an NGO on the application of anti-bribery and corruption regulations to an initiative on which the NGO was collaborating with an African state. The initiative was designed to embed human rights due diligence through the application of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in the emerging oil and gas sector in that African state.
Advising a global financial institution in the management, Maxwellisation and submission of an independent investigation report to a Channel Islands-based regulator in connection with sanctions avoidance and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing charges.
Acting as a ‘Skilled Person’ (under Section 166 FSMA 2000) in relation to four interconnected FCA investigations into alleged breaches of listed company disclosure obligations, market abuse, misleading statements/practices and governance-related systems and control issues.

Credentials

Publications

Quoted, “U.K. Plans to Invest $495 Million in Economic Crime Crackdown,” The Wall Street Journal (March 30, 2023)
Quoted, “UK Proposes Laws to Strengthen Economic Crime Enforcement,” Global Investigations Review (March 1, 2022)
Co-author, “Self-Reporting to the Authorities and Other Disclosure Obligations: The UK Perspective,” Global Investigations Review’s Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations (2022)
Co-author, “Self-Reporting to the Authorities and Other Disclosure Obligations: The UK Perspective,” The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations, Fifth Edition (2021)
Co-author, “Self-Reporting to the Authorities and Other Disclosure Obligations: The UK Perspective,” The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations, Fourth Edition (2020)
Co-author, “Self-Reporting to the Authorities and Other Disclosure Obligations: The UK Perspective,” The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations, Third Edition (2019)
Co-author, “Common Sense Prevails in the UK’s Battle over Legal Professional Privilege,” Expert Witness Journal (Autumn 2018)
Co-author, “Four Takeaways From the U.K.’s ENRC Privilege Decision,” The Anti-Corruption Report (October 17, 2018)

Areas of Practice

Disclaimer

Ropes & Gray International LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in Delaware, United States of America and is a recognised body regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (with registered number 521000).

Experience

Credentials

Education

Admissions

Publications

Areas of Practice

Disclaimer