EXPERIENCE & EXPERTISE
David’s practice has a strong focus on retail, commercial and industrial leasing. He is Joint Head of our Melbourne Property Team. He successfully manages national leasing teams working on multiple high volume transactions. He provides strategic guidance, negotiates agreements and complies with client objectives and deadlines across their respective leasing portfolios.
David has been responsible for leasing multi use retail projects, liaising with household name tenants, industrial sites and CBD office buildings across Australia, demonstrating his understanding of, and compliance with, jurisdictional issues and anomalies to ensure his clients commercial interests are best protected. A particular specialism is his expertise in acting for clients leasing and developing childcare sites across Australia, playing to his project management capabilities.
David has a passion for leasing which is highly valued by his clients. He is highly skilled at quickly identifying key issues for landlords and tenants, and efficiently resolve issues as they arise. David’s talent and experience in effective handling of high volume, national leasing is an integral component of the work undertaken by our Melbourne leasing team.
Examples of David’s recent matters include:
- Drafting and negotiating retail, commercial and industrial leases across all Australian jurisdictions for a number of major corporate landlord and tenant clients
- Acting as lead lawyer in connection with shopping centre leasing across Australia for some of Australia’s largest landlord companies
- Advising various Victorian Government departments and bodies on numerous significant leasing deals and projects
- Managing national leasing portfolios for some of Australia’s major banks
- Providing legal and commercial advice to key clients on property / leasing issues, including advice under Victorian, New South Wales and Western Australian retail legislation
- Precedent creation for clients including full suites of lease documents and correspondence
- Extensive experience in due diligence work, including industrial parks, retail shopping centres and CBD office buildings
- Acquisition and disposal experience across all jurisdictions in Australia.
The 2020 edition of renowned legal directory The Legal 500 notes our Property team as having ‘considerable expertise and knowledge in property/leasing issues and are responsive especially when there are strict time frames’ and ‘The team is extremely knowledgeable, efficient and good value’.
David’s clients commend him for his commerciality and no-nonsense approach to his advice, with one client, Luca Giovannetti at Tal GP Pty Ltd commenting: ‘I have been working with David for years – we are very happy with the work he does for us; he is pragmatic, commercial, meticulous, and really understands our drivers. We won’t use anyone else.’ David was individually commended in The Legal 500 edition 2020 for his lease negotiation skills.