Nick Leale is a dual-qualified barrister and solicitor, specialising in professional regulation and compliance. He has extensive experience in professional disciplinary law and regulatory risk, having worked in various high-profile roles throughout his career. He was Regulatory Business Group Head at his previous firm, overseeing a team of over 50 regulatory lawyers. In 2023 he became European General Counsel and Head of Legal Practice at an AMLaw 200 law firm ABS in London, before becoming the firm’s UK Managing Partner.
Unlike other leading experts in the field, Nick draws together expertise developed from different roles in professional regulation that have crossed various boundaries.
Nick has acted for various regulators (including the Solicitors Regulation Authority as an appointed prosecutor and hearings advocate) in numerous complex disciplinary matters and therefore understands how regulators approach disciplinary prosecutions and how best to successfully defend the allegations that they take forward.
Combining those skills with his experience as a regulatory and criminal defence solicitor and advocate, Nick advises and represents various professionals accused of the full range of serious disciplinary allegations. This includes accusations relating to workplace & sexual misconduct, AML/client due diligence shortcomings, criticism of expert evidence provision, breaches of confidentiality/privilege rules and Solicitors Accounts Rules breaches.
Nick has also acted as General Counsel and Director of Risk & Compliance at a major international law firm and therefore understands the extensive internal pressures and expectations placed on COLPs and MLROs etc. In that role, as well as overseeing the response to complex SRA enquiries and decisions on reporting obligations to regulators, he has advised on all elements of client due diligence/AML compliance, cross-border conflict rules, regulatory policies/training requirements and issues relating to data security.
Nick’s combined skills enable him to foresee regulatory challenges for those acting in professional service firm compliance roles and advise on all issues encountered by COLPs and other compliance professionals, including SRA/ICAEW etc reporting obligations, how to respond to SRA enquiries and how to record risk & compliance decision-making and ensure widespread regulatory compliance within the business.
Nick is also an expert in sports discipline through having served as a Legal Chair of the Football Association’s National Serious Case Panel for nearly a decade. Nick has adjudicated on FA cases involving various forms of homophobic and racist discrimination and serious assaults on match officials. He was the decision-maker in the FA’s first ground closure cases following the recent introduction of new sanction powers and has Chaired various hearings involving abuse relating to gender reassignment and antisemitism. In addition, Nick has recently been appointed as a Chair of the Football Association’s General Appeals panel.
Nick also sits as a Legal Assessor to the healthcare regulatory conduct panels, for whom he also acts as an Independent Reviewer of internal decisions and as an adjudicator on appeals.
He has been a member of the Management Committee of the Association of Regulatory & Disciplinary Lawyers (ARDL) since 2006, acting as the association’s Treasurer.
Nick was called to the Bar in 1998 and cross-qualified as a solicitor in 2008.
We can have very open discussions with him, and he works quickly to resolve issues and share information. (Chambers and Partners UK 2022)
He delivers extensive knowledge in a thoughtful, measured manner that non-legal people can understand. (Legal 500 2020)
…He also fully considers the human factors played out within regulatory frameworks and reflects those considerations when advising those undertaking investigations. (Legal 500 2020)