Maria is a qualified solicitor who has worked and lived in the UK, France and Sub-Saharan Africa and is a fluent French speaker.

Based in London, Maria is the Senior Partner for Compliance Forensics and Intelligence covering Europe and Africa. The practice is an integrated team across London, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Lagos, Moscow, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan and Berlin, and includes region/country expert intelligence analysts, forensic accountants and investigators and forensic technology specialists. 

The practice provides support to corporate clients and their legal advisors in relation to designing and executing complex, often multijurisdictional investigations, anti-bribery and corruption risk advisory, strategic intelligence (transactional support, market entry) and third party management.

Recent examples of Maria’s advisory work includes:

• Market entry planning across sub-Saharan Africa.
• Anti-bribery and corruption policy and procedure risk assessment for an international company prior to its acquisition of a competitor which would double its exposure in significantly high risk markets.
• Oversight of a supply chain investigation into allegations of child labour for an international client’s operations in East Africa, which included a review of the client’s supply chain framework and recommendations on the company’s community engagement strategy.
• Business intelligence in the French West-African extractives sector to support a client in a long-standing dispute with the government and a competitor, including stakeholder mapping and recommendations for the client’s commercial strategy options to strengthen its negotiating position around the dispute.

Previously, Maria has worked as a legal assistant in Namibia and as an advisor at Transparency International in Zimbabwe. Maria is a qualified Solicitor (Senior Courts of England and Wales), and holds a B.A. (Hons) in Political Science from McGill University and Sciences Po (Paris).