Current practice
David Goodman is a senior member of the Litigation team.
Experience
David's experience includes various aspects of insurance law, particularly professional indemnity and directors' and officers' insurance and duties, insurance legislation questions, public liability, insurance claims, policy drafting and interpretation.
David also advises on commercial and corporate litigation, risk management, trade practices legislation and product liability.
David advocates the use of alternative dispute resolution wherever it is appropriate.
Major projects and clients
David has been involved in a number of matters in recent years, including:
- team leader representing underwriters in A$40 million engineering professional indemnity claims, with total claims exceeding A$200 million
- acting in a A$17 million business interruption claim due to an electrical component failure in a power station
- action involving corporations law prospectus provisions, auditor's and solicitor's negligence and insurance claims
- subrogation action by Woodside Petroleum's insurers against contract designers following failure of substructure piles during installation of offshore gas platform
- actions involving claims relating to auditors', directors' and officers' liability and winding up
- actions in negligence and for contraventions of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) in relation to the preparation of business plans for a major project
- acted for various witnesses and participants in the biggest and longest running Royal Commission held in Western Australia, and
- David has managed numerous other legal claims involving damages ranging from under A$100,000 to over A$20 million.
Professional background
David has Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and was admitted to practice in 1975 in South Africa and 1987 in Western Australia.
David is a member of the Australian Insurance Law Association (Western Australia committee member from 1994–96) and Law Society of Western Australia – Courts Committee. He is an accredited member of Lawyers Engaged in Alternative Dispute Resolution (LEADR) and a mediator for Agricultural Practices Board Mediation Panel.