It is reported in today’s Financial Times  and other publications that the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC has appointed David Green QC as the new Director of the Serious Fraud Office. He will take over from Richard Alderman in April 2012.

Mr Green previously headed the Revenue & Customs Prosecution Office between 2004 and 2010, until it was subsumed into the Crown Proseuction Service at the beginning of last year.  He left that role in early 2011 and in the intervening period has been back in private practice at barristers chambers 6 King’s Bench Walk.

We assume that, having once previously had his position as head of a prosecuting body reversed into another larger prosecuting body, that David Green would have sought assurances from the government that his new position at the SFO would not suffer a similar fate during his tenure. If that assumption is correct, it follows that in our view at least his appointment shows a sign of good faith in the continuation of the SFO in its current guise, which earlier this year had its very future threatened by the Home Office minister Theresa May.

Mr Green is very well respected as a white collar crime lawyer, and we believe that his appointment will be a great success. Good luck to him.