Dr Dominic Thomas-James

Personal profile

Dr Dominic Thomas-James is a barrister and internationally recognised specialist in financial and economic crime. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and is a Visiting Fellow in Practice at the London School of Economics, where he teaches financial crime at LSE Law School. He is also a Global Justice Fellow at Yale University, USA and an Honorary Professor at North-West University, South Africa. His work spans legal practice, academic scholarship and international advisory engagements with governments, intergovernmental bodies and international organisations, and senior convening and advisory council roles in the fields of financial crime and anti-corruption.

At Red Lion Chambers, Dominic has a specialist advisory practice. His expertise encompasses anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, bribery and corruption, corporate criminal liability, fraud, sanctions, unexplained wealth, beneficial ownership, financial crime compliance and regulation, offshore jurisdictions, and wider questions of governance and the rule of law. He accepts instructions to provide specialist legal opinions and strategic advice on complex financial crime and white-collar issues, including in pre-contentious matters and investigations, on the interpretation and application of legal and regulatory frameworks, compliance with international financial crime standards and monitoring, and sanctions and regulatory exposure. His work has a particular emphasis on cross-border matters, offshore financial centres, and the interaction between domestic law and international regulatory frameworks. He also accepts appropriate instructions for expert witness work.

His advisory practice draws upon extensive experience of international consultancy, policy engagement and academic research. His international advisory work has extended to the highest levels of government, including providing independent expert perspectives directly to a serving Head of State, senior Ministers and government officials on international financial crime standards, national compliance with those standards, and international monitoring and assessment processes.

Dominic’s research and analysis have also informed legislative scrutiny and policy discussions in the UK and overseas. He has prepared written briefing material on financial crime matters for the Cabinet Office, while his work on unexplained wealth orders formed part of a collection of briefing papers edited by Jonathan Fisher KC, which was cited twice in the House of Lords during consideration of the Criminal Finances Bill. His research on beneficial ownership has also informed policy discussions involving governments and senior officials in several British Overseas Territories. He has provided expert commentary on financial crime issues to the press in the UK and internationally, including Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Dominic has delivered specialist training, papers and invited presentations to governments, intergovernmental organisations, regulatory and enforcement bodies, international law firms, financial institutions and professional associations. Examples have included the UK Cabinet Office, the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), the Bermuda Business Development Agency Executive Forum, Mali’s Central Office for the Fight Against Illicit Enrichment, the Republic of Indonesia’s Supreme Audit Board, and the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. He has also lectured internationally on financial crime including at Stanford University’s Program in Law and Society, Yale University’s Global Justice Conference, the University of the West Indies, and Doshisha University, Japan.

He is the author of Offshore Financial Centres and the Law (Routledge), and various book chapters, journal articles and practitioner publications. His research has examined the relationship between illicit wealth, financial crime, governance and regulatory frameworks in offshore jurisdictions, particularly the British Overseas Territories.

He has recently been commissioned by Edward Elgar Publishing to write a major legal commentary on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations, examining the international standards governing anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and jurisdictional compliance. The work is currently in development.

Dominic is Deputy General Editor of the International Journal of Economic Crime (Edward Elgar) and has served as Director of Publications for ICC FraudNet since 2020, with editorial responsibility for Asset Recovery Insights and the annual Global Report on Fraud and Asset Recovery.

In 2026, Dominic was invited to serve on the Advisory Council of Boston-based Integrity Initiatives International. Founded by retired Senior United States District Judge Mark L. Wolf, former South African Constitutional Court Justice Richard Goldstone and others, and now chaired by the Hon. Allan Rock PC CM KC, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the organisation leads the international campaign to establish an International Anti-Corruption Court to address grand corruption where national authorities are unable or unwilling to act.

Dominic also serves on the Organising Committee of the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, a long-established international forum founded by Professor Barry Rider OBE and held at Jesus College, Cambridge. There, he convenes the annual Offshore World programme, which brings together serving and former Attorneys General, government ministers, parliamentarians, former Governors of British Overseas Territories, regulators, prosecutors, leading practitioners and academics to examine the financial crime, governance and regulatory challenges facing offshore jurisdictions.