Dan joined 4 New Square in 2008 after spending three years at leading city firm Herbert Smith LLP, where he qualified and practised as a solicitor-advocate in the firm’s market leading dispute resolution department. This included a period working within Herbert Smith’s in-house Advocacy Unit, as well as a secondment to the High Court, Chancery Division, as a judicial assistant. He has also practised offshore, having worked for Conyers Dill & Pearman in the British Virgin Islands. Dan is one of only a handful of individuals at the junior Bar with this breadth of litigation experience.

Dan’s practice is focussed on commercial litigation and arbitration of all varieties. He has experience of contractual and trade related claims, civil fraud, financial services disputes (where his experience in the front and back offices of two investment banks is often helpful) and professional liability and insurance/reinsurance matters. He also has a strong interest in public and human rights law, an area in which he has been published. Further, he is a member of 4 New Square's growing costs team, recently assisting Lord Justice Jackson in his Review of Civil Litigation Costs.

Fully bilingual having been educated in the French, British and American systems, and having lived and worked in London, Paris and the Caribbean, Dan's background makes him an ideal choice for disputes with an international dimension. He enjoys dealing with both procedural and substantive conflicts of laws matters and engaging with expert evidence on foreign law. He is well versed in the kinds of issues typically arising in cross-border litigation and has recently spoken on, amongst other things, the obtaining of injunctions in support of overseas disputes. He has been involved in a number of international arbitrations, including under LCIA, ICC and ZCC rules.  

Dan also practises sports law, an area in which he can call on his own experience in rowing, where his achievements include honours at the Rowing World Cup, Commonwealth Rowing Championships and Henley Royal Regatta, as well as ongoing involvement as a member of Leander Club's management Committee. He is also on the arbitral panel of Sport Resolutions, giving him valuable judicial perspective on disputes in sport.

For more information on Dan's work in these areas please click on the links above, or contact the clerks or Dan directly. Recent highlights include:  

• Being instructed as sole advocate in a £4m claim by an offshore entity arising out of derivatives trading, and (separately) in a £6m claim relating to private equity financing; 

• Acting as part of a team advising an investment fund with the single biggest exposure to Bernard Madoff’s fraud, in the region of $7bn, on matters including the liability of directors, claims against third parties and insolvency;   

• Acting on a multimillion dollar shareholder dispute in the High Court of the British Virgin Islands arising out of a sino-american manufacturing joint venture, raising matters of Chinese law and involving a number of complex interim issues including injunctive relief and sequestration of assets; 

• Being led by Nicholas Bacon QC on the record breaking claim by Leigh Day & Co against Trafigura for £100m of legal costs, following the settlement of a class action relating to an oil spill off the Ivory Coast;

• Advising a large plc engaged as a contractor by the government on compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2006; and 

• Defending a high-profile Olympic athlete charged with misconduct by his governing body, before an independent disciplinary tribunal. 

Before commencing practice Dan completed the French Baccalauréat at the Lycee Français in London (with Mention Très Bien) before gaining a prize winning first class degree in philosophy and economics at the University of Edinburgh, incorporating a year at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was named on the Dean’s Honors List.

He subsequently attended Jesus College, Oxford, where, following election to an Open Scholarship, he took a first in law in two years, twice receiving the Sir Peter North QC Award for future lawyers.  Dan then secured a Distinction on the Legal Practice Course, during which time he taught the Law of Trusts to second and third year undergraduates at the University of Southampton.

French (fluent), Spanish (working knowledge)