Bowman Gilfillan Findlay & Tait

Bowman Gilfillan Findlay & Tait

SOUTH Africa-based law firm Bowman Gilfillan Findlay & Tait has appointed Jeremy Prain as an associate in the maritime and transport department. Prain is dual qualified as an attorney in South Africa and solicitor in England and joins the firm from the UK where he has practised maritime law for a number of years.

Prain has experience acting for shipowners, freight forwarders, hauliers, their insurers and P&I Clubs with particular emphasis on disputes involving the carriage of goods by sea or road. He also has experience in marine insurance and ship finance.

Holman Fenwick & Willan

JOHN Forrester, Ruth Allcoat and Adam Shire have joined the ship finance department of London-based law firm Holman Fenwick & Willan. Forrester has joined as a partner bringing the number of partners specialising in ship finance to eight. Allcoat and Shire have joined as associates. All three come to the firm from Stephenson Harwood and previously worked together at Sinclair Roche & Temperley.

Holman Fenwick & Willan has also announced five new partners. They are Jim Cashman, Julian Clark, Craig Neame, Samantha Roberts and Nigel Wick. Cashman, Neame and Clark are all members of the firm’s shipping and transport group.

Halliwells

UK-based law firm Halliwells has launched a new marine litigation team with the appointment of two new partners. Richard Atha, a marine and transport partner from Rowe Cohen in Manchester, and Duncan Ross, a marine partner from Hill Dickinson in Manchester, joined the firm earlier this year. “It was a strategic decision to expand into marine litigation. We see it as a significant growth area,” says Ian Austin, managing partner at Halliwells.

Watson, Farley & Williams

LAURENCE Martinez Bellet has joined the Paris office of Watson, Farley & Williams as a partner in the International Finance Group. Bellet began her career with Crédit Lyonnais in London and Paris before joining Clifford Chance in 1997. In 1999 she moved to Watson, Farley & Williams, specialising in general asset finance, before joining Orrick in 2002 to concentrate on maritime finance.

“Laurence has extensive experience in asset finance, specifically shipping finance, and will significantly add to the further development of our French law practice,” says Mike Vernell of Watson Farley & Williams.

IUA

DAN Glaser and Barry McConway have joined the board of the International Underwriting Association (IUA). Glaser is managing director of AIG Europe (UK) Ltd, while McConway is director of marine commercial insurances at Royal & SunAlliance.

The IUA has also appointed a new director of market services, John Hobbs, who has many years’ experience managing operational change both in the company and Lloyd’s markets. His role will involve co-ordinating the IUA’s efforts to improve the market’s placing, claims, wording and settlement processes, including a drive to increase levels of contract certainty.

Curtis Davis Garrard

CLARE Calnan has joined shipping law firm Curtis Davis Garrard as a partner. Calnan specialises in dispute resolution in shipping, insurance, shipbuilding and the offshore sector. She has over 20 years’ experience handling a broad range of contentious work, both litigation and arbitration, including complex multi-party disputes. She was the first female partner at Ince & Co and served as managing partner from 1997 to 2000.

Clyde & Co

CLYDE & Co has appointed eight new partners bringing the total number of partners at the firm to 127. Nick Austin, one of the new partners, specialises in all areas of shipping and commodity trading disputes and commercial litigation. Based in London he acts for a wide range of shipowners, charters, P&I Clubs, cargo interests and their insurers in relation to charterparty, bill of lading and general shipping and commercial disputes. He is also an accomplished and well-known lecturer on the legal aspects of shipping and trading.