David Nelson

David is a legal director based at Kennedys’ Edinburgh office. He is a Scottish-qualified notary public and a solicitor advocate with extended rights of audience in the Court of Session and the UK Supreme Court.

David specialises in professional liability claims and complaints, construction disputes, contract and property claims, coverage advice and data protection and information law.

David acts for a wide range of construction, finance, tech and legal professionals and has extensive experience handling regulatory complaints of all kinds (including to the SLCC, the Faculty of Advocates Complaints Committee, ICAS, the FOS and the ICO).

David has a keen interest in the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and practical experience of mediation, adjudication and arbitration. Having worked on behalf of major UK insurers throughout his career (including on secondment to Hiscox in 2017), he understands the economic and business concerns at play in insurance litigation and takes a practical, outcomes-driven approach to dispute resolution.

David enjoys presenting regular training sessions and talks to clients and professional bodies, including a recent session on prescription (the Scottish equivalent of limitation) at the Law Society of Scotland’s commercial contract law conference in 2021.

Alongside private practice, David has worked as a research assistant, graduate tutor and expert marker in contract and commercial law at the University of Edinburgh in recent years.