Reed Smith LLP

ASG Representative Richard Gunn

Protecting and promoting high standards in the practice of English Maritime Law

Since 1925, our Shipping Group has continually been regarded as specialists in maritime law. Shipping remains a core area of our business. Our shipping group gives the firm a comprehensive knowledge of the important concerns of all aspects of the industry. We maintain large shipping practices in our offices in London, Paris, Piraeus and Hong Kong from which we can service the needs of our global clients.

Core areas in which the group advises include dry shipping. This often involves the preparation of cases for arbitration or the Commercial and Admiralty Courts. Many of these matters involve multi-jurisdictional disputes in which the group has extensive experience. The group’s dry shipping caseload includes charter party disputes, cargo claims, shipbuilding, freight futures and derivatives, conversions and repair disputes and ship sale and purchase disputes. The group also advises on the drafting of standard form or specialised contracts.

A further core area of the group where we advise is “wet” work, particularly collisions and other major casualties, and salvage, as well as Article 14, SCOPIC wreck removal and pollution, and their associated insurance and General Average implications. We also deal with guarantees and securities, fires, total losses, loss of and damage to containerised cargoes, oil and HNS pollution. It is our experience in handling casualties across the globe that often separates us from other firms’ wet practices.