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David Rouch

Partner

Corporate advisory and governance | ESG and sustainability | Financial services | Mergers and acquisitions | Private capital |

An expert, very well thought of for his technical expertise

Client testimony, Chambers UK 2015

Profile details

About David Rouch

David is widely recognised for his technical expertise in financial services law and regulation. He works with the full range of financial market participants on both their advisory and transactional matters – dealing with some of the market’s greatest regulatory challenges.

He is regularly consulted on aspects of the UK and international regulatory reform agenda such as individual accountability, product governance and the interface between conduct and competition regulation and has been assisting various clients with their Brexit planning. He is currently advising the United Nations Environment Programme and others on the integration of sustainability in the investment chain. 

He is also known for his work on law and institutional culture, and has helped a number of firms with their culture-change programmes. He has run two joint projects between Freshfields and the London School of Economics exploring this area, and was involved in Bank of England work on the global FX code. 

David is a regular commentator and speaker on financial services-related issues and has written for various publications, including the Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation and The Times.

He is the author of The Social Licence for Financial Markets: Reaching For The End and Why It Counts, Palgrave Macmillan, July 2020.

Recent work

  • Advising Henderson Global Investors on its merger with Janus and Aberdeen Asset Management on its merger with Standard Life.
  • Advising a number of leading financial institutions on their Brexit planning.
  • Advising a major US financial services institution on its implementation of the Senior Managers Regime and related systems and controls.
  • Advising leading global banks and asset and wealth management businesses on MiFID 2 implementation projects, including in relation to product governance.
  • Advising a major professional services group on its restructuring.

Qualifications

Professional memberships

  • Editorial board of the Law and Financial Markets Review
  • Served on numerous regulatory and industry working groups established by HM Treasury, the Financial Markets Law Committee, the British Bankers’ Association and the UK Investment Association, among others

Publications

  • Chapter 1, OUP May 2014 Alternative Investment Funds in Europe, Eds Lodewijk Van Setten and Danny Busch

  • Law and Financial Markets Review, 4(2) (2010) Self-regulation is dead: long live self-regulation

  • Law and Financial Markets Review, 2(4) (2008) The international financial markets as a source of global law: the privatisation of rule-making

  • Financial Markets Review, 2 (2008) The development of global markets as rule-makers: engagement and legitimacy

  • Law and Financial Markets Review, 2(4) (2008) Markets as rule makers, enforcement dispute resolution and risk

  • Law and Financial Markets Review, 1(5) (2007) Providers and distributors: responsibilities in relation to retail structured products

  • Journal of International Banking and Regulation, 20(6) (2006) The UCITS Directive and the Single European Market: a Case Review

  • Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, 19(2) (2004) Limited Liability Partnerships: Flexing the Body Corporate

  • Worthy of trust? Law, culture and ethics in banking, Banking Standards Board, March 2017

  • The Research Handbook on Law and Ethics in Banking and Finance, Edward Elgar 2019 The Social Licence for Financial Markets, Written Standards and Aspiration