At the Bar - Maritime lawyers

WHILE most maritime lawyers are squeezed into the square mile of the City of London, Michael Baker-Harber is more sensibly located in Knightsbridge, just a stone’s throw from Harrods. But that’s not to say he isn’t at the heart of the maritime law community. Far from it. In fact, after twenty years with the London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA) as a part-time arbitrator, he has recently been appointed as the new president of the association.

Oddly enough, Michael’s career in maritime law came about over the garden fence. With a father and a grandfather in the legal profession, Michael knew from a young age that he was destined for a life in the legal field and it was his love of sailing that nudged him into the maritime arena. But it wasn’t until his parents’ next-door neighbour, himself the senior partner at Ince & Co, took the young Michael under his wing that his career was finally launched.

In 1965, when he joined Ince & Co, there were only 29 people at the London office, so he got plenty of opportunity to get his hands dirty. “At Ince’s not only did you have to cover all areas of the law, you also had to have a go at everything, whether it was taking collision statements or dealing with contractual matters,” he recalls. He obviously made a good impression because, by 1972, he had been made a partner.

One incident, in particular, stands out from the rest. Michael had spent 53 days in the high court acting for underwriters in a scuttling case. The third engineer was the prime suspect and spent some days giving evidence. Some weeks after the trial was over, and the underwriters had succeeded, another vessel sank in the Caribbean in suspicious circumstances. The vessel was called the Michael. Michael went to investigate, arriving on the quayside before the ‘survivors’. And who was the first on shore? You guessed it.

Six years later Michael decided to join the Embiricos family business which, at that time, with 35 vessels, was one of the largest independent owners in the world. Subsequently he became managing director of the London agents, First International Shipping Ltd. It is this mixture of commercial understanding and legal ability that Michael believes stands him in good stead as an arbitrator. “Being surrounded by the nitty-gritty of the industry is always helpful to an arbitrator,” he says.

London arbitration, however, has not been without its critics, mainly due to costs – something Michael is already addressing. “The essence of London arbitration should be speed and cheapness,” he says. “I have a bee in my bonnet at the moment. There have been incidents of $150,000 cases seeing costs of more than $200,000. That is simply unacceptable.” The LMAA is currently exploring the possibility of putting a cap on recoverable costs, subject to consultation with interested parties such as the defence clubs.

But that’s not the only London arbitration development that Michael is heavily involved with. The non-publication of awards in London has also racked up the column inches recently. “With the number of appeals from awards falling, it has been suggested that more extensive publication of awards would give the outside world a more complete picture of developments in UK maritime law,” says Michael. “This is why the LMAA decided to issue a questionnaire earlier this year to gain feedback from the industry about whether there should be more extensive publication of awards and if the parties, vessels and arbitrators involved should be identified.” Full details of the questionnaire can be found at the LMAA website (www.lmaa.org.uk) which, incidentally, is undergoing a long-overdue revamp.

It would appear that Michael, and indeed the LMAA, have much to keep them busy in the immediate future. Thankfully, Michael finds a good balance between work and play through his hobbies. A keen skier, sailor and shot, he spends much of his spare time outdoors. And when he’s not hitting the waves or the slopes, his four daughters and son keep him occupied.

He even found time to represent England in several Admiral’s Cups and in the 1976 Olympic sailing team. Sailing today, however, involves little more than pottering around on his boat and enjoying the odd race with Norwegian friends on the Oslo fjord. But, as Michael so rightly points out, “It’s better to be a has-been than a never-been.”