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David Thomas

19th April 2019

is a UK lawyer and co-founder of Advocates for Animals, the UK’s first animal protection law firm He is also consultant to Cruelty Free International and has acted for most of the other leading animal protection organisations in the UK and others further afield, specialising in using the law to advance campaigning objectives. He was formerly a civil litigation partner in a West End firm and then legal officer to a family poverty charity. He is experienced in EU and international law and has taken many test cases against public bodies. He is a consultant to a leading human rights law firm. David also sits as a part-time judge, hearing cases about welfare benefits, freedom of information and occupational pensions. He has written and contributed to several books and published innumerable articles in a wide variety of publications, on law, ethics and campaigning (including an article about the ethics of animal experiments in the Journal of Medical Ethics). David has taught human rights law and public law, including a recent course on judicial review to senior Chinese judges. He has given many talks and taken parts in debates and media appearances and has given evidence to several parliamentary committees, a Royal Commission and the Burns Inquiry into Hunting. David is a former chair (and current trustee) of the RSPCA and has been a member of other boards, including Cruelty Free International, Compassion in World Farming and a street children charity. He was a member of the Law Society’s mental and health committee and the Government’s panel on funding of public interest cases, and of the advisory committee for Burma Campaign UK. Until recently he was a Samaritan.