Mr David Smedley > Walker Morris LLP > Leeds, England > Lawyer Profile

Mr David Smedley

+44 (0)113 283 2525 david.smedley@walkermorris.co.uk View profile View profile

Work Department

Employment

Position

Partner and Head of Litigation and Employment

Career

As Head of Employment, David has over 25 years experience in all aspects of employment and industrial relations work. In addition, he deals with a wide range of high value breach of contract and restrictive covenant claims. With his Employment Team he resolves a wide range of contentious issues as well as becoming involved in strategic HR planning for clients in a non-contentious context. David is also part of our Education Group and deals with all aspects of education law including admissions and exclusions issues and claims for judicial review. David was one of the few to successfully oppose an appeal against a schools decision to permanently exclude a pupil.

In a given case David will generally deal with all advocacy and is well known to ACAS and the Employment Tribunals. He is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and the Industrial Society and regularly contributes to publications (both specialist and general). Guidelines for Tribunals to deal with discrimination claims were handed down in David’s case of Netto Foodstores v Blaise Tchoula. David also acted in the recent high profile status case of Redcats (Brands) Limited v James.

David is Head of Litigation & Dispute Resolution and a member of the Firm’s Management Board (an elected post) for over a decade. David is heavily involved in the firm’s Annual Charity Children’s Calendar competition and together with Ashley Jackson, he judges the entries and hosts the award ceremony for the winning schools.