HFW Strengthens Market-Leading Shipping Practice With Senior Promotions

Global, sector-focused law firm HFW has strengthened its market-leading shipping practice with the promotion of Claire Womersley to partner and Caroline Murphy and Katherine Noble to legal director, effective 1 April 2020.

Claire’s practice encompasses all aspects of crisis response and ensuing “wet” litigation arising from marine casualties. Claire has supported clients with large scale casualty management for a number of the firm’s high profile cases, particularly those involving mass fatalities and natural disasters. Claire is a Master Mariner and a core member of HFW’s Travel and Leisure Team, based on her seagoing experience, having spent nine years at sea on large passenger vessels and ro-ro freight ferries before joining HFW.

Caroline deals with a wide range of dry shipping disputes, involving charterparties and bills of lading, as well as on shipbuilding disputes and the dry aspects of shipping casualties. She also acts on contractual disputes arising out of sale and purchase contracts involving oil.

Katherine specialises in asset finance with a particular emphasis on ship finance. She acts for financial institutions, export credit agencies and owners on shipping and offshore loans, and her work also covers yacht financing, ship sale and purchase, shipbuilding contracts, charterparties, ship registration and other commercial shipping matters. She also acts for financial institutions and insurance providers in relation to bank facilities for the provision of corporate capital at Lloyd’s and other corporate insurance matters.

The promotions continue a period of sustained growth for HFW’s global shipping practice, following its launch in Monaco with the hire of a market-leading team and the addition of two senior experts in Singapore: renowned former shipbroker Chris Jones and dry shipping expert Christopher Metcalf.

HFW was recently named by Lloyd’s List as the world’s leading shipping law firm and has been serving clients in the industry for more than 135 years.

The firm has over 200 shipping lawyers and Master Mariners across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, specialising in dry shipping, admiralty and crisis management, and transactional work.

It represents the full spectrum of those involved in the industry, including shipowners and charterers, P&I Clubs, banks, international agencies, shipyards, marine insurance underwriters, governments and brokers across the entire shipping life cycle, from design to recycling.

Claire, Caroline and Katherine are promoted as part of HFW’s annual promotions round, which also includes new partners and legal directors across the firm’s offices in US, Europe and Australia, and its global industry groups for aerospace, commodities, energy and resources, and insurance.

Richard Crump, Global Senior Partner, HFW:

“We continue to expand and strengthen our business across our international network and our global industry groups, and that all starts with investment in our people. Our newest partners and legal directors have already made significant contributions to the growth and success of the firm, and I would like to congratulate them on their well-deserved promotions.”

Jeremy Shebson, Managing Partner, HFW:

“We are lucky to have so many talented and dedicated lawyers at HFW, and I am delighted to see another group progressing to the next stage of their careers at the firm. They each have a proven track record of providing outstanding service to our clients, and embody the very best of our creative, entrepreneurial and collaborative culture. I am also very pleased to see balance between male and female promotions – gender equality is a key priority for us as a business, and we are committed to improving female representation at all levels of the firm.”

Other New Partners

Jean-Baptiste Charles: Aerospace, Paris

Jean-Baptiste specialises in aviation liability, transport law (including logistics) and commercial litigation. He acts for domestic and international airlines, insurers and other aerospace entities on a wide range of matters, such as multi-jurisdiction major catastrophe losses, personal injuries, cargo matters and passenger claims as well as civil drones/UAVs. He also advises on general aviation and non-contentious matters relating to travel law, consumer law and commercial law.

Jo Garland: Energy and Resources, Perth

Jo has extensive experience in the energy and resources, decarbonisation and climate change fields. She acts for utilities, offtakers, power project developers and large energy users on strategic alliances, joint ventures, shareholders agreements, off-market transactions, offtake agreements, mine procurement and tendering.

William Hold: Commodities, Geneva

William represents a wide range of clients in commercial disputes, and has experience of arbitrations governed by the Swiss Rules, as well as the rules of the ICC, the SIAC and the LCIA. His practice also involves non-contentious commercial work, acting for commodity traders and other organisations involved in international trade and trade finance.

Sheshe Taylor Evans: Insurance and Reinsurance, Houston

Sheshe’s practice focuses on the insurance and energy sectors. She acts for London Market insurers in coverage and bad faith litigation relating to a variety of first- and third-party coverages, including commercial property, general liability and business interruption. She also represents oil exploration and production companies, as well as energy contractors, in complex personal injury and commercial litigation matters at every stage of the energy and resources chain, from upstream and midstream, to downstream.

Paul Woodley: Aerospace, London

Paul has significant airline major loss experience in multiple jurisdictions, including foreign carrier accidents situated in Europe and the United States. He acts for airlines, manufacturers and airport service providers, and advises insurers on a wide range of coverage disputes. Paul also specialises in emerging risks within the aviation industry, including UAVs.

Other New Legal Directors

Ben Atkinson: Insurance and Reinsurance, London

Ben specialises in insurance and reinsurance disputes, including those relating to onshore and offshore energy, mining, property damage/business interruption, CAR, casualty, public and product liability, professional indemnity and ILW policies. He also has significant experience of international arbitration, including as an advocate making oral submissions and conducting cross-examination.
Source: HFW