Washington DC (January 25, 2023) – Nichols Liu has hired Laura Kennedy to co-chair its Global Compliance and risk practice. Laura joins the firm as a partner.
Laura spent the past 21 years as a corporate executive for leading government contractors—specifically, as the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at Honeywell, SAIC, and Emergent BioSolutions. In those roles, Laura was responsible for corporate ethics, compliance, and risk management programs.
Laura is a thought leader in ethics and compliance. She was a two-term Chair of the Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct (DII) – a non-profit organization comprised of ethics and compliance professionals from 80 government contractors in the aerospace and defense industry. As Chair, Laura led DII’s efforts to develop a compliance toolkit for its members.
Prior to moving in-house, Laura spent 21 years in private practice at global law firms Seyfarth Shaw, Holland & Knight, and Jenner & Block.
“Laura’s skills and experience will add a new dimension to our already strong bench and further solidify Nichols Liu as a full-service government contracts firm. Her experience in enterprise risk management will enhance the firm’s capabilities and dovetail well with the firm’s other areas of expertise,” says Robert Nichols, Chair of the firm.
Laura will co-chair the firm’s Global Risk and Compliance practice with Lynne Halbrooks. Lynne previously served as the Acting Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General and as Chief Compliance Officer and Deputy General Counsel at Acuity International.
Together, Laura and Lynne will bring an insider’s perspective to serving government contractors, including expertise in legal regulatory compliance, enterprise risk management, investigations, mandatory disclosures, ethics, and Board of Director training and reporting.
“Laura’s unique combination of experience from private practice and corporate leadership positions offers our clients deep insights into how government contractors operate and the best practices for compliance and risk management,” says Halbrooks.
“I chose Nichols Liu for my return to private practice for its culture, flexibility, and close group of top-flight government contracts practitioners. The people here really enjoy working together,” says Laura.
