7 King's Bench Walk

Dave Barnard has a busy practice spanning all of Chambers’ areas of practice, including general commercial, insurance and reinsurance, shipping, aviation, commodities, civil fraud, and professional negligence. Dave has a keen interest in shipping and insurance; he became an Associate of the Association of Average Adjusters in 2022, following his completion of exams concerning the Marine Insurance Act 1906 and the Insurance Act 2015.

Dave is regularly instructed as sole counsel, and  he has appeared alone in the High Court and in the County Court on numerous occasions. He particularly enjoys instructions which seek injunctive or other interim relief; he has previously been involved proceedings concerning freezing orders, third-party costs orders, various forms of disclosure orders, and mandatory injunctions.

Examples of Dave’s recent instructions include:

• Acted as junior counsel for the Appellant in the Supreme Court in Ridgebury November LLC v King Crude Carriers SA, in which Dave orally argued some issues. Judgment is expected in late 2025.
• Acted (led by Michael Holmes KC) in a successful jurisdiction challenge in multi-million-dollar fraud and conspiracy proceedings: AON UK Ltd v Howden Group Holdings Ltd [2025] EWHC 1148 (KB).
• Appeared unled in a successful challenge to the Admiralty Court’s jurisdiction in The “SY Explorer” [2024] EWHC 3531 (Admlty).

Dave is also called to the Bar of the British Virgin Islands.