Partner
Corporate Advisory
Phone +64 9 367 8343
Email [email protected]
+64 9 367 8343
David has extensive experience leading clients through all aspects of complex corporate and commercial transactions. David is the firm's National Practice Group Chair for Corporate Advisory. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and commercial contracts.
David has developed a confident, common sense approach to mergers and acquisitions in his 20-year career in corporate law. He draws on his domestic and international experience advising high profile clients on their most important transactions.
David’s reputation as a highly capable and focused merger and acquisition expert is evident in the significant matters he has advised on to date, including:
David also has broader commercial experience, including advising:
LLB, BA, University of Auckland.
David joined Russell McVeagh as a solicitor in 1999. He was admitted to practise in England and Wales in 2003 and spent the next four years polishing his international commercial law practice at Herbert Smith Freehills in London. David returned to New Zealand and Russell McVeagh in 2006 and became a partner in 2007 and has previously acted as Chair of Russell McVeagh's board.
Our Corporate Advisory team was named New Zealand's top deal firm at the 2019 New Zealand Law Awards, with David co-leading the team which won the 'Consumer, Media and Tech Deal of the Year' at the awards. The firm also won National Law Firm of the Year at the 2022 IFLR Asia Pacific Awards.
David is recognised as a leading lawyer by Chambers and Partners Asia-Pacific and Global 2023 Guide for Corporate/Commercial law and in the Hall of Fame for Asia-Pacific Legal 500 2022. He is also recognised as a 'highly regarded' practitioner by IFLR 1000 2022 Guide for Private Equity and M&A, by Best Lawyers® 2024 New Zealand Guide for Corporate, M&A and Private Equity Law, and as a distinguished practitioner for Corporate and M&A by AsiaLaw 2022. Client feedback in the Legal 500 and Chambers 2022-23 Guides emphasised David's expertise in the Corporate Advisory sector, stating David:
David is also a three-time winner of the New Zealand Corporate Lawyer of the Year title at the ILO Client Choice Awards (winning in 2019, 2017 and 2015), and was named in Australasian Lawyer magazine’s 2016 Hot List, as one of the top private practice lawyers in Australasia.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Private Equity
Agribusiness and Food
Energy and Renewables
International Trade and Investment
Partner, Corporate Advisory
Special Counsel, Corporate Advisory
Partner, Tax
Special Counsel