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DAVID BICKFORD |
| David Bickford is acknowledged internationally as a leading innovator in the motivation aspects of combating terrorism & organised crime. He has addressed Congress in Washington & delivered the Judge Ben Green Lecture at Case Western University as well as the Cleveland City Club Lecture. David has also addressed the National Security Committee in Chicago & the American Bar Association on many occasions as well as lecturing extensively throughout the UK, US & Europe. |
| David left school at 17 & qualified as a solicitor five years later. He took up private practice as a solicitor doing mostly advocacy work & at 28 was appointed Attorney General to the Turks & Caicos Islands, establishing the framework for one of the earliest offshore finance centres based on tax & tourism incentives. |
| David was invited to join the Foreign & Commonwealth Office as a legal adviser, clarifying objectives & defining intelligible guidelines to achieve them were necessities in the business of managing foreign relations. As Legal adviser to the British Military Government in Berlin during the Cold War, close teamwork & anticipating problems were essential to counter the Russian tactics to divide the West Allies. In London & abroad as Legal counsellor to the FCO opportunity spotting & flexibility were key to the issues of defence, Western European & UN policy. |
| In 1987, David was appointed Director & Legal Adviser to MI5 & MI6 with a brief to update both Services. As Legal Adviser he was instrumental in planning their constitutional reform, legal base & effective oversight. As a board member he contributed to modernising their management & went on to develop the Services press relations & created an openness policy. |
| David introduced on-going legal advice into intelligence operations. For the first time intelligence was used to prosecute terrorists, resulting in a series of high line convictions. He opposed the then Government's insistence on blanket secrecy for intelligence work & was singled out by Sir Richard Scott in the Arms to Iraq inquiry for his work in ending this practice. Before finishing his work in the agencies, he introduced practices to control informants & further legal procedures to convert intelligence into evidence to enable the agencies to counter international organised crime & money laundering. |
| Having achieved the objectives in his brief, he was appointed CB in 1995. |
| David left the agencies in 1995 to go to the United States. Working at Cleveland State & Case Western Universities he liaised with the US Government to develop forward thinking on the dangers of international terrorism & organised crime appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee & the White House Review of Aviation Security & lecturing extensively. |
| David's experience & views are continually sought on intelligence issues, in particular by Parliamentary, Select Committees & most recently the Privy Council Review of the Anti Terrorism legislations. He regularly appears & is quoted in the media, discussing the issue of international co-operation to defeat terrorism. |
For more information on David Bickford, Contact Arena. Tel: 0113-239-2222 |