Practice Areas: Commercial Law, Corporate Advisory, Mining & Resources
David is a commercial and corporate lawyer with a particular focus on complex corporate transactions, mining and resources, mergers and acquisitions, corporate advisory, contractual disputes and specialist contract drafting.
David has more than 35 years experience in negotiating, advising on and drafting a broad range of commercial agreements including mergers and acquisitions, shareholder and management agreements, exit agreements, licence agreements, joint ventures and share sale agreements. He also advises on capital raisings, corporate governance, due diligence and corporate transactions generally and acts for both private and public companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
In the area of mining and resources, David has experience in the negotiation and preparation of joint ventures, farm-in agreements, the sale and purchase of mining tenements, mining services agreements and convertible notes. He regularly advises on directors’ duties and compliance with ASX Listing Rules including continuous disclosure.
He has a global practice with clients in jurisdictions as diverse as Peru, Argentina, Brazil, China and USA.
He has a wide range of experience in the area of the acquisition and sale of various assets including businesses, real estate, mining tenements and shares in both private and public companies.
David is also experienced in dispute resolution including mediations and arbitrations and in the resolution of commercial and contractual disputes.
Over the years David has had articles published in various journals on subjects such as directors’ duties, the Trade Practices Act and law firm practice management issues such as ethical billing practices and value pricing on which subject he has frequently delivered papers at seminars in Australia and New Zealand. David has been a strong advocate of the value pricing model for law firms and was largely instrumental in replacing the billable hour model at BBV with a fixed fee model where fees are fixed and agreed with clients in advance and where time is not money.
David is the non-executive chairman of ASX Listed Latin Resources Ltd (ASX:LRS) and is also a non-executive director of Oakdale Resources Ltd (ASX:OAR) and Vonex Ltd (ASX:VN8).
David’s areas of practice include:
- Commercial and Business Law
- Corporate Transactions
- Directors’ and Officers’ duties
- Mergers and acquisitions including assistance and advice on due diligence
- Corporation re-structuring
- Joint ventures
- Shareholder Agreements
- Share sale and exit agreements
- Corporate governance including ASX and ASIC compliance and director’s duties
- Sale and purchase of businesses
- Due diligence
- Mining and Resources
- Trade Practices Law
- Dispute Resolution
- Building and Construction
- Property and Leasing
- Commercial Litigation
- Dispute resolution
Qualifications:
- Bachelor of Arts (UCT – University of Capetown)
- Bachelor of Laws (UCT)
Admitted to Practice:
- Supreme Court of South Africa 1980
- Supreme Court of Western Australia 1988
- High Court of Australia 1992 fdf
Memberships:
- Law Society of Western Australia
- Law Society of Western Australia Quality Practice
- Standing Committee
- Former Chairman of Law Australasia – an independent association of law firms.
David is also highly approachable which is important when dealing with lawyers. There are some lawyers who are so far up themselves that you hesitate to call them, but even though David is a brilliant lawyer, he is also very down to earth.
David provided the strategic direction for our defence and pulled together a strong team to present our case. Through all of the challenges presented to us, as the case played out, he remained absolutely focussed on the direction as per the plan. The organisation and presentation of strong and unified team, I believe, had an influence on a good outcome.
David’s input continues to be highly regarded and appreciated on a range of matters. He has a good balance of business common sense approach with what is the likely legal outcome from other approaches. All of which made it easier to make decisions on matters we were not accustomed to.
I can honestly say that in complex commercial litigation matters, David demonstrates an uncanny ability to think clearly, out of the box, and he adopts a pragmatic and very cost-effective approach. This is especially the case in relation to fixed fee pricing.
David provided the strategic direction for our defence and pulled together a strong team to present our case. Through all of the challenges presented to us, as the case played out, he remained absolutely focussed on the direction as per the plan. The organisation and presentation of strong and unified team, I believe, had an influence on a good outcome.
David’s input continues to be highly regarded and appreciated on a range of matters. He has a good balance of business common sense approach with what is the likely legal outcome from other approaches. All of which made it easier to make decisions on matters we were not accustomed to.