David is a litigator who has appeared more than a thousand times in the courts of British Columbia and provinces across Canada. He has been senior, lead counsel on several major appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada in constitutional, civil, criminal and First Nation’s cases. David was lead counsel for the Tsilhqot’in Nation at trial and on the successful appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. The decision of the Supreme Court of Canada can be found here.

David is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia, where he has been teaching for more than 20 years. He taught Advanced Criminal Law and now teaches Aboriginal Law to higher level law students. David has also been a frequent guest lecturer for Continuing Legal Education and for the Professional Legal Training Course for articled students.

David graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Philosophy and then went to law school at the University of British Columbia graduating with a law degree in 1978. After clerking for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, David was called to the bar in 1980 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2009. He holds the highest possible rating for legal ability (A) and ethics (V) in Martindale-Hubbell, an authoritative and global source for rating lawyers and law firms. David is a founding partner of his firm which opened in 1980. Although David has spent more than 40 years as trial and appellate counsel in all kinds of criminal and civil cases, David’s practice has shifted in recent years to concentrate on aboriginal rights and title cases and class actions. He is frequently retained by other law firms as litigation counsel.

David is a Board member of Ecojustice, Canada’s largest environmental charity. He presently acts as Chair of the Litigation Committee.

In his spare time, David enjoys squash, tennis, skiing, woodworking and playing the trumpet very badly and, unfortunately, very loudly.