Call: 2008
Dan’s practice is focused on commercial litigation and arbitration of all varieties, and sports law. He also has expertise in costs law. He is considered a leading junior by both Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500, which describe him as “a commercial litigator who has swiftly developed a strong reputation”, "a rising star of the Sports Bar" and “one to watch”.
Dan joined 4 New Square in 2008 after training and practising as a solicitor-advocate at City firm Herbert Smith LLP. He has also practised as a litigator in the British Virgin Islands for leading offshore firm Conyers Dill & Pearman. Dan is one of only a handful of individuals at the junior Bar with this breadth of litigation experience, and consequently he typically operates above his year of call.
Dan's commercial case-load is broad: he is instructed on all kinds of business disputes, including relating to trade, financial services, company and partnership arguments and misconduct, insolvency and professional liability in a commercial context. He also has a strong professional interest in civil fraud. Dan is numerate and, having worked for two investment banks at the start of his career, is comfortable dealing with sophisticated financial instruments and complex corporate structures where necessary.
His strong international background - a fluent French speaker, he was educated in the French, British and American systems and has worked in London and Paris as well as the Caribbean - means he is an ideal choice for disputes with a cross-border or overseas element. He has expertise in all aspects of private international law, enjoys engaging with foreign law and has been involved in a number of high-value international arbitrations, including, most recently, a Swiss Rules arbitration relating to a massive alleged fraud in Central Asia featuring claims and counterclaims in excess of $500 million.
On the sports law front, Dan has quickly developed a reputation as one of the leading barristers in this arena. A former international standard rowing cox and current Secretary of Leander, Britain’s leading rowing club, he has first-hand experience of the kinds of legal issues that can arise in sport. He acts for governing bodies, athletes, clubs, agents and other entities on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious matters. He sits on Sport Resolutions’ Panel of Arbitrators and the Lawn Tennis Association’s Disciplinary Panel, giving him valuable judicial perspective, and is a director of the British Association for Sport and Law.
As for costs, Dan is a specialist in cases raising novel or difficult legal issues. He has appeared numerous times led and unled in the Senior Courts Costs Office and on appeals therefrom, and brings a thorough understanding of the law, detailed research and creative thinking to every instruction. He assisted Lord Justice Jackson with his review of costs in civil litigation and was instructed (with Nicholas Bacon QC) on the biggest costs claim in English legal history, Motto v Trafigura.
Before commencing practice Dan gained prize-winning first class degrees from the University of Edinburgh (incorporating a year at the University of California, Berkeley) and the University of Oxford, where he was elected to a scholarship. He also taught trusts law at the University of Southampton.
More recently, he has been published by (amongst others) the Journal of the New York State Bar Association and the Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, on topics such as worldwide freezing orders and the ongoing cross-border Lehman Brothers insolvency.
Education
Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle (London), University of Edinburgh, University of California (Berkeley), University of Oxford (Jesus College), BPP Law School
Languages
French (fluent), Spanish (working knowledge)