Profile
David Frend was called to the Bar in 1994 and commissioned into the Army Legal Services in 1997. In addition to prosecuting at Court Martial, providing operational legal advice on military operations, David was the first permanent military legal advisor to the United Kingdom Special Forces.
From 2015 to 2021, David undertook significant appointments including Specialist Prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service, Proceeds of Crime Unit, and major multinational international roles including: international prosecutorial mentor and advisor to the Afghan Anti-Corruption Justice Centre, Kabul; with UNODC as the AML and CTF and anti-corruption mentor to the Afghan Anti-Corruption Justice Centre, Kabul. Within these appointments David has provided technical assistance with and led on engagement with numerous agencies including the Financial Transaction and Report Analysis Centre Afghanistan (FinTRACA) and Ministry of Interior (police), together with international colleagues from the United States (US) Justice Department, the US Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
Since 2021 David has been engaged by UNODC as the AML/CFT and anti-corruption regional mentor and adviser for the Mekong Region (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam), working in close cooperation with the economic crime police, customs, state prosecutors, judiciary and financial intelligence units (FIUs) of the respective countries. David will be returning on a full-time basis to Proelium Law in December 2024.
David became a Partner with Proelium Law in July 2018 and has been involved in a significant number of cases and matters that Proelium Law has dealt with when not commissioned by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). David is security cleared to a high government standard.
