Rita D. Mitchell

Rita D. Mitchell is a partner in Willkie’s Investigations & Enforcement and White Collar Defence Practices in London. Dual-qualified in the US and the UK, her practice includes advising and defending corporations in a variety of criminal and civil investigation and enforcement matters, conducting complex, worldwide internal investigations in relation to bribery, corruption, fraud, sanctions, human/business rights, and money laundering, advising on and developing and benchmarking compliance programs, conducting pre-merger and third party due diligence, and providing day-to-day counseling and training on compliance with US and English laws, including the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and UK Bribery Act 2010 (Bribery Act).

Rita is ranked by Chambers UK (2025) for Corporate Crime & Investigations, and clients note that she is “simply fantastic - she's knowledgeable, with keen insight, and a great strategic thinker” and “able to get into the weeds and distil issues, providing sensible, pragmatic and helpful advice.”

Rita is also ranked by The Legal 500 UK (2025) as a “Leading Partner” for Regulatory Investigations and Corporate Crime (advice to corporates), where she has been described as having “a very approachable style and is very good at getting to the heart of the issue and knowing what's next." 

Rita is Recommended for Investigations in the current edition of Who’s Who Legal and in prior years has been ranked as a “Future Leader: Global Elite” (2023, 2022 and 2021) and as “a highly regarded name” and “up-and-coming star” (2020 and 2019), in the area of Investigations. Rita was also included on the Global Investigations Review listing of the “Top 100 Women in Investigations” in 2018.

Rita is the co-leader of the London Chapter of the Women’s White Collar Defense Association, a group of women attorneys and other professionals who represent clients facing government enforcement actions, criminal or civil, and who conduct global internal investigations and handle other compliance and ethics matters for clients.