David Speakman

David specialises in all areas of employment law, with a particular interest in Investigations and Tribunal Litigation.

He has almost 20 years’ experience advising clients including investment banks, insurers, professional services firms, private equity firms, asset managers, and corporates in the property retail and hotel sectors.

David acted successfully in the important employment cases of: Dr Beatt v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, where the Court of Appeal gave clarification on the test for a protected disclosure in whistleblowing cases; and in the EAT in Ferguson v Astrea Asset Management Ltd, where the EAT confirmed that poison pill provisions should not transfer under TUPE.

Relevant experience includes advising on:

• complex discrimination, whistleblowing and breach of contract claims, including a recent £7m age discrimination claim;
• on all employment aspects of large-scale investigations;
• international projects, board-level hires and exits, restrictive covenants and collective consultations and redundancies;
• all aspects of National and International M&A transactions (including in 2019 advised a leading Chinese steelmaker on all employment aspects of its agreement to acquire British Steel);
• outsourcings and real estate transactions; and
• Brexit projects for several major Investment Banks.

David has also spent time on secondment at a US Investment Bank, one of the ‘Big Four’ accountancy firms and Lotus Cars.

Footnote - [many examples were at previous firms]