David Thomas is a UK lawyer (solicitor). He advises a number of animal protection organisations, including the BUAV (for whom he has also acted as chief executive).  This includes advising on EU law, the WTO, the European Patent Convention and other international instruments as well as taking test cases in the UK and the EU, challenging governmental secrecy and seeking to protect legitimate forms of protest. He has helped to set up an educational charity covering animal experiments.

He is also a consultant to a leading human rights law firm, has taught human rights and social security law and advised on issues relating to the campaign for democracy in Burma. After a number of years in private practice, conducting a wide range of litigation, he worked for a family poverty charity, taking a number of test cases to the higher courts in the UK and in Europe.

He has been a member of the UK Government’s committee advising which cases should be granted legal aid on public interest grounds and is a former member of the Law Society’s mental health and disability committee.

David has co-written a book on homelessness and published innumerable articles on law and other topics. These include articles in the Journal of Medical Ethics (on the ethics of animal experiments) and the Times newspaper (on street children in Central America and the enforceability of the UK ban on hunting with dogs). He is also an experienced lobbyist, has drafted legislation in the UK, the EU and further afield and has given evidence to several parliamentary committees and governmental inquiries. He was a member of the European Commission working group on the revision of the animal experiments directive. He has appeared on the broadcast media on a variety of issues.

He has also given many talks, and taken part in debates, on animal protection and other issues, in the UK and abroad.

David is a recent chairman of the RSPCA and a former director of the UK Association of Lawyers for Animal Welfare and Compassion in World Farming.  He is a Samaritan.