David is a member of the Victorian Bar, and has been in legal practice for over 40 years. He has a strong interest in dispute resolution including arbitration and mediation. He was a founding member of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration board and served on it from 1985 to 2010; he is a fellow of ACICA and a fellow of the Resolution Institute and the first Chair of the International Law Section of the Law Council of Australia. David is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Victoria University where he teaches Commercial Arbitration. He regularly presents papers on civil litigation and dispute resolution for the Law Institute, Leo Cussen Institute, Legalwise and other bodies. He is the senior author of Civil Procedure Victoria and the author of Discovery and Interrogatories, Australia published by Lexis Nexis.
A former solicitor for over 25 years heading up a banking practice in a major law firm he now practises primarily in commercial litigation concerning banker/customer disputes, distribution and franchising disputes, cross border trade and commercial disputes and international transactions. He was counsel for Castel Electronics Pty Ltd in the key cases concerning international commercial arbitration in the Federal Court of Australia, the Full Federal Court of Australia and the High Court, TCL Air Conditioner (Zhongshan) Co Ltd v Castel Electronics Pty Ltd [2014] FCAFC 83; Castel Electronics Pty Ltd v TCL Air Conditioner (Zhongshan) Co Ltd [2014] FCA 1214 and TCL Air Conditioner (Zhongshan) Co Ltd v The Judges of the Federal Court of Australia (2013) 295 ALR 596.