David Lawrence Haigh is a British human rights lawyer and international crisis and media manager.
36 Facts About David Haigh
2.
David Haigh is the chief executive officer and founder of the Sport Capital Group, a financier of Leeds United Football Club.
3.
David Haigh denies all allegations and claims he was set up.
4.
David Haigh is a campaigner for human rights and justice in the UAE, specifically on unfair trials, torture, Interpol, and extraditions.
5.
David Haigh is the founder and managing director of David Haigh International Justice, a dispute resolution, crisis, and media management strategic advisor.
6.
David Haigh co-founded Legal Advocacy NGO Detained International in 2018.
7.
David Haigh is an active campaigner for anti-homophobia in sport, credited with helping pave the way for LGBT players and managers in football.
8.
David Haigh then studied at the University of Southampton, where he graduated with a degree in law and attended law school at the College of Law in London.
9.
David Haigh is an international human rights lawyer, a solicitor of the Senior Court of England and Wales.
10.
David Haigh has practiced law in the United Kingdom, the Caribbean, and Dubai.
11.
David Haigh joined West Mayfair law firm Palmer Cowen in 2001 and has worked at several international law firms including DLA Piper and US law firm Akin Gump.
12.
David Haigh was the co-founder, along with Radha Stirling, and managing partner of Stirling David Haigh, an international dispute resolution, crisis management, and strategic advisory firm.
13.
David Haigh co-founded Detained International, a London-based legal advocacy NGO that provides pro bono legal advocacy to victims of injustice, inequality, and other human rights violations in the UAE and the wider Middle East.
14.
David Haigh was chairman of Conservatives Abroad UAE and vice chairman of Gulf Tories and as its vice-chairman.
15.
David Haigh led GFH Capital's negotiations with the then-owner of Leeds United, Ken Bates, for the acquisition of the club.
16.
On 1 July 2013, David Haigh was made managing director of the club following the departure of now Football League CEO Shaun Harvey.
17.
On 11 April 2014, David Haigh resigned as managing director following the purchase of the club by Massimo Cellino.
18.
David Haigh is said to have fallen out with GFH Capital after they sold the club to Italian businessman Massimo Cellino and not Sport Capital.
19.
In 2013 David Haigh became the first openly gay managing director of an English football club, Leeds United.
20.
In 2017, David Haigh was appointed to the Cornwall County Football Association Inclusivity Advisory Group in 2017 to advise on LGBTQ matters and diversity in Cornish football.
21.
David Haigh's arrest related to allegations of fraud and embezzlement from his time at GFH Capital.
22.
David Haigh denies all allegations and claims he was set up.
23.
David Haigh was acquitted of this charge in March 2016, and returned to the UK a few days later on Good Friday where he gave a series of television and press interviews setting out the treatment, torture abuse and unfair trials he suffered.
24.
In July 2018, a Dubai judge Justice Jeremy Cooke in the Dubai International Finance Centre Courts in a hearing where David Haigh was not present or represented held that David Haigh had fraudulently directed funds.
25.
David Haigh withdrew the application when he lost access to lawyers.
26.
David Haigh spent two months in the Priory Hospital in 2015.
27.
At the time, David Haigh was representing hostage Dubai Princess Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum.
28.
David Haigh had been exchanging videos and text messages in secret for more than a year and a half with Latifa through a phone that had been smuggled into the Dubai villa where she was being held.
29.
David Haigh stopped responding on 21 July 2020, according to a screenshot of the messages Haigh shared.
30.
The analysis shows that David Haigh's phone was hacked two weeks later.
31.
David Haigh was an ambassador for Make-A-Wish Foundation and established a foundation to help victims of suicide in Brazil following the suicide of his former partner in Brazil.
32.
David Haigh established Du Justice, a charity to provide funds to those in Dubai jails that cannot afford legal representation or food.
33.
David Haigh was open about being gay while in his role at Leeds United, and said to The Mirror that many gay players confided in him at the time as a result.
34.
David Haigh is identified by Princess Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum as her representative in her fight for freedom.
35.
David Haigh was interviewed on 60 minutes Australia and confirms he has been fighting for the princess's life and freedom for several years.
36.
David Haigh founded Detained International in 2018, a British NGO.