Twenty Essex

Praised for its ‘extremely strong bench strength in the shipping space’, Twenty Essex’s members are routinely instructed in complex shipping cases at all levels of the English court system as well as internationally. In UK P&I Club v Venezuela, the Court of Appeal in London blocked a claim by the Venezuelan regime, owing to state immunity, in a case after a collision between a navy patrol vessel and a cruise liner; David Lewis KC led Alexander Thompson for the shipowners. A number of the set’s barristers were involved in Frangou v Frangos, which dealt with a contractual dispute between members of a Greek shipping family concerning costs and losses arising out of the operation of a commercial vessel; Oliver Caplin KC led Patrick Dunn-Walsh on the defendant side, while Timothy Hill KC led Andrew Feld for the claimant. Elsewhere, the MSC Flaminia has continued to occupy courts, with Julian Kenny KC leading Michal Hain on behalf of MSC in limitation proceedings in the Court of Appeal, which upheld that charterers cannot limit an owner’s claim for its own losses.