David Kelly Director

David Kelly leads the corporate and commercial legal services team. His team specialises in providing legal services to in-house counsel of large corporate clients. He has significant expertise dealing with all commercial legal issues faced by in-house legal counsel. David first gained this experience working as in-house legal counsel for a large Australian manufacturing company and, more recently, as trusted legal adviser to several household brand name clients.

David is ably assisted by a senior lawyer and a 4th year lawyer, each with significant in-house legal experience (via secondments for the firm and from roles prior to them working at the firm). In 2011, a 1st year lawyer also joined David's team.

Key areas of expertise/experience

• Advising in-house counsel on all aspects of commercial contracts and legal and business risk issues, with a particular focus on balancing aggressive commercial activity with the appropriate identification and management of business risks.
• Drafting and negotiating all types of commercial contracts including partnership agreements, joint venture agreements, agreements for the provision of services, procurement contracts, supply and distribution agreements and out-sourcing arrangements.
• Trade practices compliance - advice, strategy and training in relation to restrictive trade practices laws and consumer protection laws. David has recently assisted several large corporate clients ensure compliance with the new Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and the Australian Consumer Law contained in it.

David's philosophy is that a good in-house lawyer's objective is not the elimination of risks from a commercial transaction, but the identification and management of those risks in a manner commensurate with the potential commercial rewards and the risk appetite of the client's business. David has built a thriving practice assisting in-house lawyers of large corporations to achieve this objective.

Email: dkelly@khq.com.au