Nicolas Brooke

Biography

Nicolas is a partner in the Paris office of Signature Litigation. He has deep experience in the management of complex and international high stakes litigations.

Nicolas specialises in internal investigations and compliance, and advises the Firm’s clients on white-collar crime issues, the implementation of compliance and remedial programmes, crisis management and civil fraud matters.

After qualifying as a French avocat, Nicolas worked for several years in the international arbitration and litigation team of a major international law firm. In 2010, he joined the Société Générale Group. As General Counsel for Litigation and Investigations, Nicolas handled the Firm’s internal investigations and was personally involved in the most sensitive disputes involving Société Générale that arose in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. He played a key role in the settlement of its LIBOR case with the French, US and Japanese authorities and the European Commission. He also managed a case relating to the corruption of Libyan public officials, which led to settlements concluded simultaneously with the US Department of Justice and the French Parquet National Financier. These ground-breaking agreements were seen by many at the time as the most significant developments in the fields of white-collar crime, internal investigations, and compliance of the year. Nicolas also played a key role in a case relating to the OFAC sanctions programmes, settled by Société Générale in November 2018 with a number of US government enforcement authorities.

The Legal 500 EMEA Guide recognises Nicolas as a ‘Leading Individual’ for compliance, and notes he is a “superb advocate with deep experience in the French market.” Nicolas is also described as “level-headed, thoughtful and creative;” and “truly first rate“, with “outstanding professional skills and shows a good sense of strategy. His previous experience as general counsel led him to play a key role in the negotiations of multi-jurisdictional settlements with prosecution authorities; he thus perfectly knows the international investigations environment.” Who’s Who Legal France 2020 recognises Nicolas for his investigations expertise and notes his “impressive hands-on experience of negotiating multi-jurisdictional settlements”.

Nicolas receives high praise within the industry; his team at Société Générale was awarded the “Trophée d’or Direction Juridique Contentieux” by Décideurs/Leaders League and most recently he won the “Outstanding In-house Counsel” award at the Global Investigations Review Awards in 2018.

Nicolas was educated at King’s College London, and the Sorbonne.