David Wright

David is a London based partner. He qualified in England and Wales in 2002 having joined Kennedys in 2001. David was appointed as a partner of the firm in 2008.

David has a specialist track record of advising on and dealing with a wide variety of regulatory defence work, investigations and prosecutions centring on environmental damage and associated issues across a broad spectrum of industries.

As well as this criminal and regulatory work, which spans cases involving oil spills, sewerage, the protection of flora and fauna, and damage to Hadrian’s Wall, David also maintains a caseload of civil environmental matters. In an area of legal practice where crime, regulation and civil law often overlap, David’s experience in cases involving nuisance (statutory, public and private), waste and rights of way leave him uniquely placed to devise and coordinate holistic legal strategies.

David handles and supervises a wide variety of health and safety, environmental and food safety investigations and prosecutions, along with a caseload of civil law environmental matters. He specialises in advising and representing defendants and witnesses during environmental investigations and prosecutions.

David has developed particular expertise in nuisance, waste, rights of way and cases involving the Wildlife and Countryside Act. He has acted in leading Court of Appeal nuisance cases such as Morris t/a Soundstar Studios v Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd (electromagnetic interference) and LB Wandsworth v Railtrack plc (pigeons).

He writes and lectures on environmental defence law and practice, from the perspective of corporate and insurer clients. David co-authored the environmental claims chapter in the latest edition of Kennedys’ Claims Handling Law and Practice Guide which was published in February 2021.