Emmanuel brings to his practice the unique commercial insights of his previous career in senior management roles in the shipping industry.
Before training as a barrister with a leading commercial set, Emmanuel was the Director of Operations and General Counsel of an international cruise line and was elected to the Board of Directors of a leading Protection & Indemnity (Insurance) Club.
In those roles, he experienced everything from spending a month at a dry dock overseeing a vessel’s cost-casualty repairs and investigations to negotiating corporate finance transactions, ship sales and charterparties.
Emmanuel understands the challenges his clients face and the importance of finding actionable solutions tailored to their business needs.
He is developing a broad commercial practice with a focus on shipping and international arbitration. He is regularly instructed as sole counsel but has also worked as part of a wider team with other barristers, solicitors and foreign lawyers.
Highlights of his recent work as sole counsel include:
- Acting in a one-day LMAA hearing in an unsafe port and war risks dispute arising out of the war in Ukraine (due to take place in May 2024).
- Drafting and advising on an application in the High Court for an anti-suit injunction to restrain foreign proceedings.
- Acting for owners in defending against a challenge to an LMAA tribunal’s jurisdiction in a demurrage matter.
- Acting in a dispute as to the identity of parties bound by a charterparty.
Shipping
Shipping is a core part of Emmanuel’s practice and an area in which he has extensive commercial experience. Emmanuel is regularly instructed across the full spectrum of shipping disputes.
Examples of recent instructions as sole counsel include:
- Repudiation of Long-Term Charters. Acting in an LMAA arbitration for a US$ 11 million hire dispute arising out of the termination of a long-term charter and involving allegations of breach of contract and misrepresentation.
- Unsafe Ports & War Risks. Acting in an LMAA arbitration in a factually complex dispute concerning whether shipowners were entitled to refuse charterers’ orders to sail to named ports in the context of the war in Ukraine.
- Demurrage. Acting for Owners in an LMAA arbitration involving a US$350,000 dispute as to demurrage involving the application of a bespoke heavy weather clause.
- Charterparty Variation & Estoppel. Acting in three related LMAA arbitrations over disputes covering a total of US$ 5.7 million in unpaid hire due under three charterparties, which raised questions of contractual variation and estoppel.
- Acting in an LMAA arbitration in a number of multi-million-dollar disputes involving breach of sanctions and misrepresentation as to sanctions clearance.
- Off-Spec Bunker Claims. Advising on a dispute as to off-spec bunkers, including whether owners were entitled to insist on debunkering and to recover the associated costs.
Other experience includes:
- Speed & Consumption Claims. Acted in a number of speed and consumption claims, including a number involving bespoke clauses.
- Assisted a member of a leading shipping set in a 5-day, multi-party, LMAA arbitration involving factually complex allegations of a vessel’s unseaworthiness. The case reached a favourable settlement on day 4 of the hearing.
- Validity of Notices. Advising on a number of issues arising out of the validity of redelivery notices and notices of readiness.
- Bills of Lading. Advised on a variety of issues relating to bills of lading, including incorporation of terms and the application of statutory provisions.
Emmanuel’s experience in his previous career includes:
- Wet Shipping. Experience with a variety of high-stakes casualties, including the “M/V Marco Polo” and the “M/V Columbus”.
- Vessel Repair. Hands-on experience with post-casualty response and repairs, including spending a month on board a vessel in drydock to negotiate with the shipyard and insurers.
- Surveys & Inspections. Represented owners in a variety of flag and port-state surveys and vetting inspections.
- Insurance Claims. Handled a large variety of insurance claims including recoveries under H&M policies and P&I cover. This includes preparing and arguing the owners’ case for a c.US$ 20 million claim arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic before the Board of the IGP&I Club.
- Ship Sale & Purchase. Drafting and negotiating a range of ship sale and hire-purchase agreements.
Commodities & International Trade
Emmanuel is developing a busy commodities practice. He has worked on cases involving cargo damages and contamination and is well-versed in the nuisances of claims involving quality determination or certification.
Recent instructions as sole counsel include:
- Cargo Damage. Advising on a dispute as to liability for damage to a cargo of bagged fertiliser.
- Cargo Contamination. Advising on a claim for contamination of a cargo of urea ammonium nitrate solution.
- Quality Determination. Advising on the construction of cargo specification clauses and the application of cargo quality determination provisions.
- Dangerous Goods. Advising on liability for the costs of handling a damaged container carrying a dangerous cargo of lithium batteries.
International Arbitration
Emmanuel is regularly instructed as sole counsel on both substantive proceedings and procedural applications in arbitration.
Recent instructions as sole counsel include:
- Acting, both for and against, in a variety of applications for security for costs.
- Acting for the successful applicants in a contested application seeking the determination of a charterer’s main defence in an LMAA arbitration as a preliminary issue.
- Acting for the successful applicants in an application for an arbitration brought under the LMAA Small Claims procedure to proceed instead under the standard LMAA Rules on account of procedural failings on the part of the respondents.
- Advising on the prospects of appeal of an arbitral award.
Before coming to the Bar, Emmanuel spent a year working at the Scottish Arbitration Centre where his duties included assisting in drafting the arbitration rules of the Scottish Arbitration Centre.
Commercial Litigation
Emmanuel has experience with interim remedies such as applications for anti-suit injunctions and freezing orders. Emmanuel’s work routinely involves cross-border elements and jurisdictional issues.
Recent instructions as sole counsel include:
- Contractual Termination. Advising on a variety of matters involving questions of contractual termination including matters relating to the validity of termination notices and the interplay of contractual and common-law termination rights.
- Set-Off. Advising on a number of disputes involving questions of legal and equitable set-off including “no set-off” provisions.
- Title to Shares. Advising on the effect of a foreign company’s dissolution on the ownership of shares it held in ownership of shares in an English company.
Other experience includes:
- Assisting a member of a leading shipping set in an LCIA arbitration hearing on the construction of a loan agreement in a €200 million dispute involving allegations of market manipulation.
- Assisting a member of a leading shipping set in an application for a mandatory injunction in a passing off claim involving aircraft parts with falsified safety certificates.
- Assisting a member of a leading shipping set in successfully defending HMRC’s position in section 8 proceedings as to the interpretation of “actual or prospective right” in a three-day high court hearing in Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Authority v Howell & Anor [2023] EWHC 257 (Ch).
Scholarships and Prizes
- Best Advocate, Worshipful Company of Arbitrators Arbitration Competition (2023)
- Best Team in the Preliminary Rounds, Iain Fletcher International Insolvency Moot (2022)
- Honourable Mention for the Martin Domke Award (Best Individual Speaker), Willem C. Vis Moot (2022)
- Honourable Mention for the Eric E. Bergsten Award (Best Team at the Oral Rounds ), Willem C. Vis Moot (2022)
- HR Light Scholar, Middle Temple (2021)
- Top 0.7% of his LLB cohort with Certificates of Excellence for the best dissertation and a range of awards in other subjects University of London (2021)
- Winner, Quadrant Chambers Speed Moot (2020)
- Amicus Essay Prize (2019)
- GC Powerlist Greece and Cyprus, Legal500 (2019)
Qualifications
BPC, Inns of Court College of Advocacy
LLB, University of London
MA International Relations, University of St Andrews
Languages
Greek (Native)