
Julian Clark Global Senior Partner
Ince bolsters presence in Greece with seven new hires in Piraeus office
The expansion follows the appointment of partners Konstantinos (Dinos) Mexias and Aris Moschopoulos in 2021, which, coupled with the calibre of our clients in the region, has created the need to bolster the team and attract more talent to the firm.
Associates Ioanna Gavriiloglou and Henry Stockley, and Trainee Christos Palimeris will join our shipping litigation team. Ioanna brings six years of experience in litigation matters involving arbitration and High Court proceedings. Henry, who is qualified as a solicitor in England & Wales, has eight years of experience in the shipping industry and handles commercial disputes, including matters arising from charterparty and trade disputes, casualties, shipbuilding, ship sale and purchase, and war risks.
Anthi Kekatou joins the ship finance team as a Managing Associate and has experience in advising international banks and finance institutions on a range of matters. Anthi has advised on both bilateral and syndicated finance agreements with cross border elements in relation to both second hand and newbuilding vessels, bond finance, loans to joint ventures, and various export credit backed finance agreements.
Joining Anthi is Associate Io Georgia Papadimitriou, who brings four years of ship finance experience acting for banks, borrowers, and private equity firms in relation to ship finance documentation, negotiation of loan agreements and associated financial security agreements, security documentation, and loan restructurings. She will also assist Dinos in his Marshall Islands and Liberia practice. Domniki Symeonoglou also joins the ship finance team as Paralegal.
Michel Farach joins the firm as a Marine Manager, making Ince the only firm to have two permanently based mariners in the region. Michel is a senior level ship operations officer with four years of sea experience in oil and gas ships, and who also earned an LLB and an overlapping LLM with distinction while working at sea.
10-08-2022 / Maritime
Kirkwood v. Thélem Assurances [2022] CSOH 53 A recent Outer House Opinion has provided welcome clarity on the recovery of English solicitors’ fees in the Scottish Courts.
02-08-2022 / Maritime
Sea Master Special Maritime Enterprise & another v. Arab Bank (Switzerland) Ltd (Sea Master) [2022] EWHC 1953 (Comm) This bill of lading dispute raised issues as to whether the Bank financing the purchase of a cargo, and the holder of a switch bill of lading for the cargo, was a party to the arbitration agreement incorporated into the switch bill and, if so, whether certain counterclaims brought by the Owners came within the scope of that arbitration agreement. The Court agreed with the tribunal’s findings that, once the Court had decided that the Bank was a party to the arbitration agreement, then the counterclaims for reasonable remuneration and quantum meruit came within the ambit of the arbitration agreement, being claims “arising out of or in connection” with the bill of lading contract.
20-07-2022 / Maritime
MV Pacific Pearl Co Ltd v. Osios David Shipping Inc (Panamax Alexander) [2022] EWCA Civ 798 The Court of Appeal has confirmed that a party to ASG 2, the standard form Collision Jurisdiction Agreement, is obliged to accept reasonable security once it is offered and cannot choose to refuse that security and seek alternative or better security by arresting a ship. In such circumstances, there is no right to an arrest or any justification for it.
15-07-2022 / Maritime
In an interview published this morning (14 July) in The Hong Kong Maritime Hub, Ince Partner Rosita Lau, MH calls for Chinese businesses to opt for Hong Kong arbitration in their contracts, initiative that requires attention of officials from the highest level.
13-07-2022 / Maritime
NKD Maritime Limited v. Bart Maritime (No 2) Inc (Shagang Giant) [2022] EWHC 1615 (Comm) The Court has construed a force majeure clause and considered whether Buyers validly terminated a contract for the sale of a vessel on the basis that Covid-19 lockdown restrictions prevented Sellers from transferring title in the Vessel.
20-06-2022 / Maritime
On 25 November 2021, the UK Law Commission published its Advice to the UK Government on how English law currently applies to smart legal contracts. Subsequently, on 16 March 2022, the Law Commission published its report on electronic trade documents, together with draft legislation that would implement its recommendations to allow for the legal recognition of trade documents such as bills of lading and bills of exchange in electronic form.