Vera Powell is Counsel in King & Spalding’s Special Matters & Government Investigations group in Atlanta. Vera focuses her practice on white-collar criminal defense, internal corporate investigations, corporate compliance reviews and program assessments, and compliance counseling. Vera has over 15 years of compliance and investigations experience acquired through working in senior legal and compliance roles at several Fortune 100 companies.
Vera recently rejoined King & Spalding after serving in senior legal roles at two Fortune 100 companies—Delta Air Lines, Inc. and Uber Technologies, Inc. At Delta, Vera was Senior Corporate Counsel in the company’s Ethics & Compliance group where she had global responsibility for a wide array of corporate compliance topics, including anti-corruption, sanctions, and U.S. government contracts compliance. At Uber, Vera served as Senior Corporate Counsel, Global Compliance, where she was responsible for anti-corruption compliance, including third-party risk assessment and due diligence and compliance monitoring. Vera began her compliance career at Siemens, shortly before the company’s historic 2008 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act settlement, where she designed and operationalized a best-in-class compliance program pursuant to the terms of the settlement and subsequently served as Corporate Compliance Officer. As a result of her extensive in-house compliance experience, Vera is well positioned to help companies conduct compliance risk and program assessments, develop compliance policies, procedures, and training materials, and design and operationalize compliance processes and controls, including in the areas of third-party due diligence and compliance monitoring.
In 2023, Vera was selected to serve on the Law360 Compliance Editorial Advisory Board. Vera also serves on the Advisory Board of Compliance Week, a leading news, analysis and information resource for ethics, governance, risk, and compliance professionals. She frequently speaks at Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and Compliance Week conferences on a wide variety of compliance topics. She is also the recipient of Compliance Week’s 2020 “Rising Star in Compliance” award. Vera has worked in Germany, Italy, China, and Bulgaria, and as a result, she has strong intercultural expertise collaborating with diverse individuals within international teams. She is also fluent in several languages, including German and Bulgarian (native).
Vera graduated number one in her class at Georgia State University College of Law while working full-time at Siemens. She clerked for the Honorable Orinda D. Evans of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
