Sir David John Mark Green (born 1954) is a British lawyer and prosecutor, who served from 2012 until 2018 as the Director of the Serious Fraud Office.

Career

Career at the Bar

Green was born on 8 March 1954. Educated at

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553. ...

and then

St. Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Camb ...

, Green initially joined

Defence Intelligence Defence Intelligence (DI) is an organisation within the United Kingdom intelligence community which focuses on gathering and analysing military intelligence. It differs from the UK's intelligence agencies (MI6, GCHQ and MI5) in that it is an ...

in 1975, leaving in 1978, being

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1979 and practising as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and givin ...

. He has served as an assistant

Recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

since 1996, and as a Recorder since 2000, when he was also appointed

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

RCPO

In 2004, Green was appointed a Director of Customs and Excise, during the creation of

HM Revenue and Customs HM Revenue and Customs (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, or HMRC) is a non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial Departments of the United Kingdom Government, department of the His Majesty's Government, UK Government responsible fo ...

, leading the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO). He served in that position until 2010, when RCPO started being merged into the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal advi ...

(CPS). He stayed as head until 2011, as the CPS's Director of its Central Fraud Group, being replaced by Sue Patten.

Brief return to private practice

In April 2011, Green returned to private practise, joining 6 King's Bench Walk chambers. Since his return to the Bar, he has been instructed in complex strategic export cases and as disclosure counsel in a substantial revenue fraud.

SFO

In 2012, Green was appointed to succeed Richard Alderman as the Director of the Serious Fraud Office. Appointing Green as Director of

SFO San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middle E ...

, Attorney General

Dominic Grieve Dominic Charles Roberts Grieve (born 24 May 1956) is a British barrister and former politician who served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2008 to 2009 and Attorney General for England and Wales from 2010 to 2014. He served as the Member of Parl ...

commented: Green served his original four-year term, and was extended for two years in February 2016. Announcing extension of his appointment, Attorney General

Jeremy Wright Sir Jeremy Paul Wright , MP (born 24 October 1972) is a British lawyer and politician who served as Attorney General for England and Wales from 2014 to 2018 and as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2018 to 2019. A ...

commented: As of 2015, Green was paid a salary of between £170,000 and £174,999, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time. Green left the SFO in April 2018, being replaced temporarily by the chief operating officer, Mark Thompson, and from September 2018 by

Lisa Osofsky Lisa Marie Osofsky (born 18 September 1961) is an American-British lawyer who has served as Director of the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) since 3 September 2018. Early life Osofsky has dual American and British nationality. She earned a bach ...

. On 22 October 2018, Green joined Magic Circle law firm Slaughter and May as a Senior Consultant.

Fraud Advisory Panel

on 1 January 2022, Green succeeded David Clarke as Chair of the

Fraud Advisory Panel The Fraud Advisory Panel is a UK charitable organisation. Incorporated in 2001, the Panel focuses on offering advice and education to the general public on how to mitigate and avoid fraud. Panel members have provided evidence to the House of Comm ...

charity.

Notable awards and rankings

In the Queen's Birthday Honours for 2011, he was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). As part of the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2018, Green was made a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...

References

External links

An interview with Green in ''Fraud'' magazine from November 2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, David (Director of the SFO) Living people 1954 births 20th-century English judges People educated at Christ's Hospital British prosecutors English King's Counsel 21st-century King's Counsel Members of the Middle Temple Lawyers from London 21st-century English judges International criminal law scholars Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights Bachelor Lawyers awarded knighthoods Civil servants in the Serious Fraud Office (United Kingdom)