David Alexander KC - Commercial Barrister

South Square is a leading set of commercial law barristers. Our members have acted in many of the most important restructuring, insolvency, banking, commercial, company and fraud-related disputes of recent times. We are regulated by the Bar Standards Board.

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David was Joint Head of Chambers at South Square between 2017 and 2022.

He has a predominantly litigation-based practice with a particular emphasis on company (including unfair prejudice and just and equitable winding up petitions), commercial, banking, insolvency and restructuring, civil fraud and contentious trust work. He has appeared regularly in courts in England, including the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the Privy Council. David has also acted extensively in relation to international cases including in the Bahamas, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, The Seychelles, Jersey and Gibraltar.

Over the course of the 38 years that David has been at the Bar (nearly 20 of which have been in silk) he has been instructed in relation to many of the major insolvencies that have taken place since the late 1980s, including BCCI, Maxwell, Parmalat, TXU, Madoff, Enron, Lehman, MF Global and Landsbanki. In addition David has been involved in many shareholder disputes.

A specialist and highly recommended trial lawyer David has appeared in many major, lengthy trials including in relation to the Maxwell saga, the KWELM litigation, New Gadget Shop and the Thyssen litigation in Bermuda. More recent significant trials include Smithson v Naggar (breach of duty/misrepresentation claim), LBI hf v Stanford (claim by bank for repayment), International Consolidated Minerals Limited, Moses v Fry (breach of duty claim against former administrators), Marrache & Co v Jyske Bank (dishonest assistance/knowing receipt claim in Gibraltar), Ma v Wong (unfair prejudice claim in BVI) and Ma v Incredible Power Ltd & Ors (breach of director’s duty, dishonest assistance and conspiracy claim in BVI).

The Leading Guides to the UK Bar have variously described David as “an astute and brilliant trial lawyer”, “a brilliant litigation strategist”, “a hard-hitting trial lawyer”, “the best cross-examiner in the business and “a formidable cross-examiner who prepares meticulously; he knows how to handle trials”. He is “widely acclaimed for his persuasive advocacy and strategic nous”. He “brings great experience, knowledge and judgment to every matter”. He is “a deep and experienced barrister with a robust and no-nonsense approach”.

The most recent Legal 500 for the Bar listed David as a Leading Silk for Offshore Work (“Very client friendly, very responsive, accessible and a team player. Well prepared for court advocacy and generally popular with judges”). He is also listed as a Leading Silk in Company (“responsive, down to earth, works well in a team, clients like him and easy to work with”), Commercial Litigation (“a wonderful barrister and what you want in a senior silk at the top of his game. He leads the team with authority and ease. He is a pleasure to deal with at all times”), Fraud; Civil (“Oral advocacy great – straight talking and clear. Gets on top of all the facts. Very effective cross-examiner”), Banking and Finance (“happy to roll his sleeves up and get stuck into the detail. He has a good sense of what arguments will play well with the judge”) and Insolvency (“Gets on top of all the facts. Very effective cross-examiner”).