David Fennell

David Fennell is the Chief Executive of Gowling WLG (UK) LLP. He also serves as the Co-chair of Gowling WLG's International Board.

In these roles, David is responsible for guiding the firm's UK and international strategies and ensuring that the firm delivers the best possible experience to clients. He spends a lot of time liaising with business leaders and conducting client service reviews to make sure we are delivering on our promises. He also focuses on the bigger picture, making connections with, for and between the organisations we work with.

Before being appointed to lead the business in 2014, David headed our projects and infrastructure practice, with extensive experience of negotiating major project change across a wide range of sectors. He brings this background to his role running the business following the creation of Gowling WLG, making sure the firm is fully integrated so that clients can benefit from our enhanced, much broader and deeper capabilities.

In his own words

As chief executive of the firm, I spend a lot of time with our clients, helping them to access the full range of our services, and making sure we deliver an outstanding client experience. A significant part of my role is actually about making connections for clients, whether that means putting them in touch with parts of our business that they've not worked with before, or introducing them to opportunities outside the firm that help them realise their own strategic goals.

I'm responsible for leading the business and shaping it both in the UK and internationally, which means designing the strategy and making it happen. It's my role to make sure our broader and deeper capabilities are made available to our existing clients and new ones, while we continue our focus on industry sectors, attaching great significance to understanding the world in which our clients operate.

People are the mainstay of our business, and I'm committed to developing our culture and the huge talent of the individuals and teams that work here. We do this by ensuring that our people are engaged and motivated so they can deliver the best possible experience to our clients.

We always believe in striving to be better in everything we do. Finding new ways for our teams to come together to collaborate and innovate is essential to achieving this and helping deliver success for our clients. Whether that's a small, incremental improvement or a big idea, it's all about us working together to make a difference.

Highlights

Taking on the chief executive role and guiding this business through its combination with Gowlings is always going to be a highlight.. In more recent times, the world has seen a period of unprecedented change with the likes of Brexit and COVID-19 presenting their own specific challenges for us to navigate. I'm proud of how we have continued to move forward and grow as a business, both in the UK and internationally, with new offices opening in Frankfurt, Shanghai, Beijing, Abu Dhabi and Leeds.

From a professional point of view, the most challenging job I've ever done was work on the Crossrail project, which involved the interpretation of new legislation, passed midway through the project, as well as the provision of specialist rail advice against the background of the government seeking overriding powers to implement the project via a hybrid bill.

Clients

In addition to my role as chief executive, I remain client relationship partner for some of the firm's major clients.