David is the Head of Osler’s tax litigation practice in Vancouver. A career litigator on high-profile matters, David has appeared as lead counsel at all levels of Canadian courts, including the Tax Court of Canada, the B.C. Supreme Court, 3 different appellate courts and the Supreme Court of Canada. He has extensive experience in litigating tax cases for the Crown and is well-versed on controversies affecting corporate taxpayers.
Prior to joining Osler, David practised as Crown counsel in Canada and New Zealand for more than 23 years, including serving as General Counsel of the Department of Justice of Canada (Vancouver) for approximately 10 years. More recently, David was legal counsel for the Crown Law Office and Inland Revenue Department in New Zealand (2015-2017), where he focused on revenue and public law, and appeared before the Taxation Review Authority, the High Court, and the New Zealand Court of Appeal.
Throughout his career, David has argued a wide variety of complex cases involving tax litigation, civil litigation, customs and anti-dumping, bankruptcy and insolvency, judicial review, constitutional and other matters. He is a frequent speaker and author on a range of tax issues, and received the Canadian Tax Foundation’s Douglas J. Sherbaniuk Distinguished Writing Award in 2013 for his seminal article “The Jurisdiction of the Tax Court: A Tax Practitioner’s Guide to the Jurisdictional Galaxy of Constitutional Challenges.”
Outside of his practice, David has contributed to the legal community through volunteer work, including acting as a judge at student moot competitions. He has also participated as a mentor in the Canadian Bar Association’s Student Mentorship Program and was a Council Member at a Vancouver strata corp. from 2011-2015.