Overview CV

David has a broad civil practice encompassing the following:

• Inquests and inquiries: David is a member of the legal team representing families of the surviving children in the Southport Inquiry, led by David Temkin KC and Sara Sutherland. He also regularly appears for bereaved families and public authorities in inquests, including Article 2 inquests.
• Public Law: drawing on his inquests work, David has appeared in several judicial reviews of coroners’ decisions. His advisory work includes regular instructions from local government and other public bodies.
• Personal injury: alongside his court work in the fast track, David has a busy paper practice, advising on technical issues such as accidents involving foreign drivers and drafting pleadings and schedules of loss including on matters valued over £100k.
• Commercial litigation: David has been led on several complex and high value competition claims, in both the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the Commercial Court. He is also led on commercial disputes valued at over £1m.

Before coming to the Bar, David had a 15-year career in the Civil Service, working in a range of national security roles across central Government. From 2018-2022, he worked for the Investigatory Powers Commissioner (Sir Adrian Fulford, succeeded by Sir Brian Leveson) as an Inspector, overseeing the use of investigatory powers by the intelligence agencies. David led inspections on some of the most difficult and contentious powers, including bulk interception and detention operations overseas. He also led an investigation into serious compliance failings in a technology environment at MI5, the findings of which were later used in proceedings at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal and summarised in Parliament by the Home Secretary.