David Walker

David has been accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as an employment law specialist for over 25 years and has been recognised as a leader in his field in Chambers Legal Directory since 1998. 

He is a trusted adviser to large private and public sector employers as well as growing SMEs in handling complex contentious and non-contentious matters.

He has appeared in or supervised the defence of all types of Employment Tribunal cases and represented employers in the EAT in Edinburgh and London, recently successfully defending an EAT appeal for a UK government department using Cloud Video Platform technology.

David conducted the first successful appeal by an employer to the Scottish EAT in an age discrimination claim and successfully appeared in defending various class actions for alleged breaches of the collective consultation rules on redundancy and under TUPE. In 2021 he acted for a major employer in the successful dismissal of nearly 6,000 age discrimination and equal pay claims.

He has also advised on interdict proceedings in the Court of Session. Where appropriate he promotes the use of mediation.

His advisory work is wide ranging focusing on strategic, high value or sensitive matters. This includes change management, whistle-blowing, discrimination, restrictive covenants, collective redundancies and insolvency related issues. He also has extensive experience in the drafting and negotiation of indemnities and warranties in business transfers involving TUPE. David has a track record of dealing with difficult industrial relations disputes on behalf of employers. During his long career he has acted for large Corporates, Insolvency Practitioners. Universities, Colleges , Government departments ,non departmental public bodies, local authorities, the third sector and Scottish Premier League football clubs.

He also advises executives on severance pay and their exit from the business.

He is a regular conference speaker on advanced level employment issues which in recent times has been online.