Sara George

Practice Areas

Sara George has a wealth of experience in UK and international regulatory and criminal investigations and crisis management.

Corporations, individuals, and governments turn to Sara for guidance relating to allegations of involvement in regulatory contraventions and criminal offences, including market abuse, insider dealing, money laundering, cybersecurity breaches, fraud, corruption, and bribery.

As the leader of Sidley’s Crisis Management and Strategic Response team in Europe, Sara is also frequently called upon to advise clients on misconduct issues and reputational management, compliance, and internal investigations.

Sara has extensive experience in international criminal and regulatory investigations involving the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and in cases brought by European regulators, police forces, and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Sara has represented a party in every significant prosecution brought by the SFO in recent years, including the LIBOR prosecutions and Foreign Exchange Benchmark manipulation trials.

Clients benefit from Sara’s advocacy prowess as a former criminal barrister who has appeared before the Financial Services Tribunal, the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Crown Court, and the Court of Appeal.

As a former prosecutor for the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Sara was involved in several groundbreaking matters – including the first criminal prosecution by the FSA against a director for misleading the market (Regina v. Rigby and Bailey), the first Listing Rule contravention, numerous market abuse cases, and refusals of authorization.