David is an experienced barrister who has returned to 10 King’s Bench Walk after a sabbatical as the owner of a successful property design and construction company, giving him a strong commercial approach to negotiating solutions in very varied circumstances with all manner of people. A qualified mediator, he prides himself on his advocacy skills, being calm and quick on his feet, whilst remaining firm but courteous. A natural narrator, he quickly wins the confidence of tribunals, clients and solicitors. Dexterity with words translates to paper and his written advices are extremely client-friendly.
His persuasive advocacy and pragmatic approach to the law delivers effective County Court applications, including relief from sanctions, where judges can be sceptical. He is equally at home with personal injury claims, motoring insurance work, consumer credit and landlord and tenancy work (both in court and on paper).
He has employed his natural gravitas in privately-paid driving matters, successfully advancing Special Reasons for non-disqualification (in often grave situations where livelihood and liberty may be at stake) and defending Health & Safety cases. His familiarity with, and experience in, the Magistrates’ Courts, is very much appreciated by Bench and clients in situations where solicitors are seldom present. A recent Crown Court case involved the international extradition process in a high-value fraud case between Italy and the UK with a highly-unusual application for the Defendant to give evidence via live link.
After reading law at Downing College, Cambridge, David was called to the Bar in 1989, practising for almost a decade as a jury-specialist barrister, both prosecuting and defending, in London and on the Midland & Oxford circuit. His criminal law work included cases of rape, large-scale pornography, politically-motivated affray, attempted murder, and Class A drugs.
David has also worked as an international “pitch doctor” to businesses and set up the legal arm of a London headhunting practice. He remains a director of his own company, Chillderness, where he is both designer and renovator, providing an ideal background for mediating construction disputes. The building of his Curved House family home was featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs.
