Tim Bowden

Tim Bowden is an experienced white-collar crime and investigations lawyer whose practice focuses on international fraud, corruption and money laundering. He represents companies and individuals in investigations involving the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), National Crime Agency (NCA), HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and their international counterparts. He regularly advises financial institutions and individuals on allegations of market manipulation and abuse. He also advises companies on the effectiveness of compliance policies and the application of anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and tax evasion facilitation laws, including in M&A transactions.

Mr. Bowden has substantial experience managing complex multi-jurisdictional investigations with global authorities and multiple parties, working collaboratively with other advisers. He advised Airbus SE on the conduct of a major corruption investigation and on negotiating coordinated resolutions, including a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the SFO and a convention judiciaire d’intérêt public (CJIP) with the French Parquet national financier (PNF), as well as agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of State.

Mr. Bowden is consistently recommended in the market and is described as “strategic and thoughtful” and “business-oriented and a problem solver, working on extremely tight deadlines without compromising the quality of deliverables” (Legal 500 UK 2025, Regulatory Investigations and Corporate Crime). He has been recognized in Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) for a number of years and is listed in its Investigations 2026 guide.

Prior to joining Dechert, Mr. Bowden spent 12 years in practice at the independent bar. He was a Grade 4 prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service and served on the specialist panels for organized crime and complex fraud, and the Serious Fraud Office panel of prosecuting counsel. He has substantial appellate experience, appearing on a diverse range of matters including the meaning of valuable consideration in relation to the tainted gift provisions of POCA, the admissibility of a murder conviction in a subsequent trial for murder; the extent of the right to interpretation under article 6; whether violent carjacking for the purpose of joyriding amounts to robbery; the limits of Sexual Offence Prevention Orders; and the admissibility of statements of absent reluctant witnesses under CJA 2003 section 114(1)(d).

Mr. Bowden has an active pro bono practice, including leading Dechert’s collaboration with JUSTICE in relation to the Windrush Compensation Scheme, leading to the publication of the influential reports Reforming the Windrush Compensation Scheme and People Need Legal Help: The Value of Legal Representation in the Windrush Compensation Scheme. He has also led or contributed to work challenging laws criminalising homosexuality for Human Dignity Trust, challenging miscarriages of justice for APPEAL, supporting victims of crime for the Josh Hanson Trust, and representing prisoners of conscience for Freedom Now.