David Kirwan heads up the firm’s agriculture team providing farmers with a comprehensive range of legal advice and support.

David has made his reputation as the lawyer farmers can turn to in their hour of need, regularly representing them in cases against Trading Standards and DEFRA or in criminal prosecutions. His success rate acting for the farming community is second to none.

Admitted July 1969 becoming a partner in the present firm founded by my late father C H Kirwan in 1947, appointed an Immigration judge in 1979, senior and managing partner in 1982.

Wallasey Grammar School and Liverpool University

1967

David has taken on some of the highest profile farming cases. Among the highlights have been the eleventh hour securing of a High Court injunction to spare farmer David Dobbin’s cattle after he was accused of contravening Cattle Identification and Cattle Database Regulations. In the same case, David won a judicial review into the actions of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Other notable victories have included the case of farmer John Davies who was dramatically cleared of failing to provide his cattle with “fresh, golden coloured straw” after David intervened. Llandudno Magistrates accepted a ground-breaking submission from David that trading standards officers had failed to show the “proportionality and reasonableness” intended when legislation regarding animal maintenance had been drafted.

Another Welsh farmer, David Williams, also walked away from court totally vindicated after trading standards decided at the last minute not to contest an appeal against his conviction for causing unnecessary suffering to lambs. David has subsequently acted successfully for numerous other law abiding farmers facing prosecutions by trading standards officers.