David Farnell > Shoosmiths LLP > Leeds, England > Lawyer Profile

David Farnell

+443700867336 david.farnell@shoosmiths.co.uk View profile View profile

Work Department

Partner, Receivables (Corporate/Recoveries)

Position

David acts for banks and other financial services providers in a variety of complex disputes, often with a cross-border element. He has extensive financial services sector experience, both in private practice and in-house, through two secondments with major UK banks.

Reported cases that David has worked on are BMW v Bhagwanani (concerning whether registration of a third party keeper amounted to conversion of a motor car), Alexander v West Bromwich Building Society (representative claim challenging Society’s variation of interest rates on buy-to-let mortgages) and Carey v HSBC (approving lender’s reliance on a reconstituted agreement to satisfy the requirements of section 78 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974).

In addition to general banking law, David’s specialisms include:

Asset Finance
His asset finance experience includes cases involving civil fraud; contractual interpretation, eg. liquidated damages clause or penalty; High Court interim orders for delivery-up or preservation of goods, eg. aircraft, plant and machinery; satisfactory quality claims; title disputes and liens; third party claims, eg. surveyor or valuer negligence; and wrongful interference.

Recent cases:
• negotiated a settlement between two lessors with competing title claims over undelivered construction equipment, following the supplier’s appointment of administrators
• successfully defended of a misrepresentation claim against a lessor arising from the contra settlement of VAT invoices for the supply of commercial vehicles
• assisted a lessor in assessing and disposing of a £1.3m claim arising from the supply of robotic milking equipment (declining a request for a standstill agreement)
• advised a lessor about its £1m claim against third parties for fraudulent misrepresentation, inducing the lessor’s purchase of specialised salt machinery

Receivables Finance

David’s work in receivables finance includes civil fraud; exercising recourse; retention of title clauses; customer insolvency and enforcement of security

Recent cases:
• advised an invoice finance lender about a third-party manufacturer’s purported charge over receivables (pursuant to a distribution agreement between the third party and the lender’s customer; the case settled on terms that were favourable to the lender)
• pre-empted a customer’s alleged breach of contract claim by terminating a £0.6m invoice finance facility and forcing a negotiated settlement
• recovered £0.5m from a local authority in settlement of a bank’s assigned invoices, despite allegations of fraud against the assignor

Corporate Lending

Corporate lending disputes include issues over asset management and investment funds; civil fraud; enforcement of bank and non-bank commercial loans and related security; mis-selling complaints; priority of lenders’ charges; and Tomlinson-type allegations of misconduct)

Recent cases:
• various corporate and personal guarantee claims on behalf of banks, in circumstances where the corporate borrower has entered an insolvency procedure
• defending a breach of trust claim against several asset management companies, following misconceived allegations of fraud against a director
• disposing of a £1.5m finance brokerage dispute without the need for court proceedings
• pursuing a £25m claim arising from a series of loans between offshore trust companies (with parallel court proceedings in England and the British Virgin Islands)

Career

After joining Shoosmiths from Addleshaw Goddard in 2016, David was one of the founding Partners of our Leeds office.  He is our Leeds Corporate Responsibility Champion.

Leisure

Outside work, David is married with three sons and enjoys all sport, especially football, and is a long-suffering Leeds United season-ticket holder.