Current practice

David is a consultant to the firm's Brisbane Corporate and Tax practices. He is an experienced corporate lawyer as well as a chartered accountant (with a tax background). David utilises his expertise to advise on commercial legal and taxation issues in Australia.

Industry experience

David has advised major listed and unlisted corporations and government entities in corporate and commercial law as well as tax issues across a wide range of industries. His experience includes:

• advising on various aspects of the legal and tax structuring of joint ventures, businesses, corporate groups and commercial arrangements. This has included consideration of corporate, contract and trust laws as well as domestic and international taxation laws and treaties (including negotiations with taxation authorities) and has involved consideration of special status entities (e.g. Co-operatives, Government entities etc)
• advising on investment or doing business in Australia and the establishment of enterprises in Australia and advising local enterprises on investment relationships or alliances with domestic and international parties
• advising on and drafting a broad range of commercial contracts including business or corporate acquisitions or divestitures, joint venture arrangements, partnerships, shareholder agreements, management agreements, agency agreements, supply/purchase contracts, financing arrangements, rights ownership, sanctioning and licensing agreements etc
• advising on restrictive trade practices, competition law issues and regulated industry issues
• advice to directors and officers in respect of corporations law issues and directors' duties and liabilities
• advice on income and capital gains tax as well as transaction taxes (GST) and document taxes (stamp duty).
  
  

Professional background

David holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Queensland and is presently completing a Master of Laws degree at the Queensland University of Technology. He is an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, and a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia, as well as being admitted as a Solicitor in the Supreme Courts of Queensland and New South Wales.

David has delivered papers for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, the Taxation Institute of Australia and the Queensland Law Society on a range of corporate and tax issues.

After becoming qualified as a Solicitor and working with a commercial law firm in Brisbane, David joined the taxation consulting division of Arthur Andersen & Co in Sydney in 1985. David joined the commercial division of Freehills in Brisbane in November 1991 with a view to bringing his taxation skills to a broader commercial environment.