Profile

David is an Australian barrister.  He has been based in Dubai since 2013.  He is admitted to practise in England and Wales, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, New York (as a legal consultant) and the Courts of the Dubai International Financial Centre .  He was first appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1986.  He is listed as an Arbitrator with the Dubai International Arbitration Centre and a Tier 1 Silk in Legal 500’s 2025 Middle East ranking of the English Bar.

He was President of the Taxation Institute of Australia from 1993 to 1995, and of the Asia Oceania Tax Consultants’ Association from 1996 to 2000.  He has been appointed an AOTCA Honorary Adviser for life, an Honorary Member of the Taxation Institute of Hong Kong, an Advisor of the Global Tax Advisors Platform and a Steering Committee member of the International Tax Specialist Group.

He was Deputy Chairman of STEP WorldWide during 2018 and 2019 and Chair of its Governance Committee to 2021, served as inaugural Chair of STEP’s International Client Global Special Interest Group, a co-chair of the UAE Chapter of the International Section of the New York State Bar Association, and an Academician and Council Member of The International Academy of Estate and Trust Law.

In 2016 and 2017 he chaired the DIFC’s Wealth Management Review, has contributed to the drafting of the DIFC Trust Law and Foundations Law, and is the Executive Editor of the DIFC Academy’s Laws of the DIFC.  In 2026 he was appointed Chair of the Expert Advisory Council of the DIFC’s Family Wealth Centre.  He is co-editor of the Oxford University Press publication Trusts & Trustees, the leading international journal on trust law and practice.

David is a Freeman of the City of London.  In 2010 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (with Gold Rays and Neck Ribbon) for his services to Australia-Japan relations. In 2012 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for, among other things, “service … to taxation law and legal education.”