Kevin’s core expertise is in shipping (including yachting) and marine insurance law. For commercial shipping, his main focus is on casualty cases, complemented by his dry shipping expertise in charterparty and cargo claims and ship and boatbuilding. A keen sailor, he also handles contentious yacht and superyacht cases and regulatory and compliance matters. His clients include major international ship owners and their insurers, charterers, cargo owners, salvors, shipyards and boat builders.
Kevin studied law at Oxford University and was a prizewinning student barrister before serving in the British Navy for 10 years, much of that time at sea. After leaving the Navy in the rank of Lieutenant Commander, he worked for the United States Department of Justice before joining a leading shipping and insurance law firm in 2000, working in its London, Shanghai and Monaco offices.

Kevin’s casualty response practice includes collisions, groundings, ship fires, cargo damage, pollution and salvage cases. He regularly handles high-value multi-jurisdictional matters and has been “noted for large-scale casualty cases” in the 2018 edition of the Legal 500 directory. Such cases include the collision between the container vessel MSC JOANNA and the hopper dredger W D FAIRWAY, the grounding and subsequent collision of the KHALIJIA 3, the container fire on board the AMSTERDAM BRIDGE, the sinking of the ATLANTIK CONFIDENCE (one of The Lawyer magazine’s top 10 cases of 2016) the NORMAN ATLANTIC ferry fire, the collision between the racing yachts SVEA and TOPAZ and the collision between AFINA I and KIVELI. Kevin also has significant experience of handling casualties in the offshore oil and gas and yachting sectors and has acted as an advocate in court, arbitration and mediation proceedings in the United Kingdom and China. Most recently, he was brought in by the successful appellant to advise on insurance law and other aspects of the “seminal” Court of Appeal case of ENKA v CHUBB.

Kevin’s earlier experience as a criminal court advocate in the Navy has provided him with valuable expertise when advising clients whose employees become the subject of criminal investigations and in handling the prosecution of ship owners and managers. That same experience benefits clients in relation to other regulatory and compliance matters, especially anti-corruption policies and procedures, on which Kevin provides advice and training to a range of shipowners and insurers.

Most recently, Kevin has been recognised as a leading shipping and maritime lawyer by Who’s Who Legal: Transport, in the latter of which clients commented on his “calm demeanour”. He is also is a recommended lawyer in The Legal 500 rankings, with one client remarking that he “is fabulously responsive, and he has proper sector knowledge” and referees for the 2022 edition remarking that “he provides practical advice in an efficient and solution-orientated manner” and “is rigorous in his strategic approach, ensuring all avenues are explored…while keeping fees reasonable – and therefore ideal for multijurisdictional disputes”.

Kevin is also the Contributing Editor of ‘Getting the Deal Through: Shipping’ and is the panel leader for their “Market Intelligence – Shipping” publication. Copies of these publications are available here and here (both reproduced with kind permission from Law Business Research Ltd: for further information please visit www.gettingthedealthrough.com).

Kevin is dual-qualified as a solicitor and a barrister, regularly chairs and speaks at shipping sector events, sits on various industry committees in the shipping and yachting sectors and has particular industry contacts in Norway, Denmark, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and the Americas.

He speaks French, German, Swedish and Mandarin Chinese.