Simon is a professional arbitrator. He is a full member of the LMAA. As counsel, he had a lot of experience of maritime and commercial arbitrations. He now sits regularly as a full time arbitrator. He handles all types of international maritime cases. These include disputes arising under time and voyage charterparties, bills of lading contracts, sale and purchase agreements, shipbuilding and shipreparing contracts, contracts for the sale of goods, marine insurance policies, collisions at sea, and agency and commission agreements. He is used to deciding complex legal, commercial and technical issues.
Simon is a professional arbitrator and mediator, handling a wide variety of international maritime cases. His arbitration practice involves deciding disputes arising under time and voyage charters, bills of lading contracts, sale and purchase contracts, shipbuilding contracts, contracts for the sale of goods, marine insurance policies, and agency and commission agreements. His mediation practice involves assisting parties reach a negotiated settlement in similar types of dispute.
Simon was also the Honorary Secretary of London Maritime Arbitrators Association for over four years. In this capacity, he advised on and lectured about a wide range of issues which arise under the Arbitration Act 1996 He is a barrister with over thirty years experience of arbitrating and litigating shipping cases. He was counsel in a number of leading shipping or arbitration cases. He appeared as counsel in a number of wreck inquiries. He practiced from what is now Quadrant Chambers and served as the deputy head of those chambers for a number of years. He is now a door tenant of those chambers.
Before qualifying at the bar, he had 5 years experience in the shipbuilding industry both in the UK and overseas. After retiring from practice, he was appointed chairman of a shipping group, and was responsible for instituting a programme of rationalization of the group. He has over 11 years of judicial experience as a recorder of the crown court, as deputy admiralty registrar, and an assistant boundary commissioner. He is a trustee of a number of charities including the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting. He was the general editor of the last two editions of Marsden - Collisions at Sea. xxxx
Simon is a qualified and professional mediator. He has specialised in mediating substantial shipping, insurance and commercial disputes. The cases which he has mediated have usually involved complicated multiparty disputes. They have concerned claims arising out of charterparties, bills of lading, marine insurance, non-marine insurance, shipping finance and commercial contracts. These disputes have raised diverse factual, legal and technical questions. They have often involved disputed claims against insurers. In the majority of disputes which he has mediated, Simon has achieved a settlement of either the whole dispute or a settlement between some of the parties to the dispute. In two cases, a settlement was achieved as a result of a non-binding recommendation which the parties asked Simon to make during the course of the mediation.
Simon’s international practice covered all aspects of maritime law, but its core was all aspects of dry (contractual) work and wet (casualty) work. The dry work covered principally disputes involving sale and purchase, shipbuilding, ship repair, charterparties, bills of lading, towage, sale of goods, marine insurance, and ship mortgages. The wet work covered principally disputes involving collisions, salvage and general average. Both types of cases often involved seizing assets, disputes as to jurisdiction, and limitation of liability. He was also involved in drafting standard form shipbuilding contracts and charterparties.
Before starting a career at the admiralty bar, Simon had 5 years experience in the shipbuilding industry as a management trainee and subsequently as a manager. This involved training and experience with shipyards in Port Glasgow, the North East Coast of England, and Bilbao.
While practising at the bar, Simon was a non-executive director of the Gallic Management Group. The group had interests in mini-bulkers, fishing vessels, rig supply vessels and cruise ships. After retiring from the bar, he was employed as executive chairman of that group, and was responsible for initiating a programme of rationalisation of the group's many interests.
Simon was the Honorary Secretary of London Maritime Arbitrators Association, with executive responsibility for the affairs of an association with about 650 full and supporting members in every country which has serious maritime interests. In this capacity, he advises on and lectures about a wide range of issues which arise under the Arbitration Act 1996.
Simon is a council member of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales. He sits on the Council's executive committee. The Council is a charity responsible for publishing internationally a number of major series of law reports both in print and electronically. These law reports includes not only the well know Law Reports and the Weekly Law Reports, but also more specialist titles like the Industrial Cases Reports and the Business Law Reports.
Charities
Other Experience