Areas of expertise: Shipping, Marine, trade and aviation
Profile
A partner in our Singapore office, Max brings a wealth of experience and tactical acumen to his specialist fields of shipping, commodities, energy and international arbitration. He acts for corporates, insurers, banks, shipowners, operators, commodity traders, energy, oil and gas and offshore players, among others, on their most challenging and important problems. Max prides himself on the highest standards and for delivering with sophistication. He has significant experience with the courts and in arbitration, including SIAC, SCMA, LMAA, LCIA, ICC, GAFTA, HKIAC, AIAC, and DIAC.
In shipping, Max’s practice includes disputes arising under charterparties and bills of lading, covering the full spectrum of issues. On ‘wet’ matters, he regularly represents shipowners and insurers on collisions, groundings, fires, shipboard mishaps, and other major incidents in and around the Asia Pacific region. Max is also actively engaged in ship building, repair and conversion work, as well as ship sale and purchase work. Commodities and international trade are another core part of his practice. He regularly acts in disputes relating to the sale of a wide variety of goods as well as in trade finance matters. His practice extends to financial instruments used in international trade including letters of credit.
Max is ranked by Lexology Index Who’s Who Legal as a ‘recommended lawyer’ for shipping in Southeast Asia. In The Legal 500, he is recognised for being ‘outstanding for his breadth and depth of knowledge and the speed and accuracy with which he applies it’. He is also feted as a ‘stand out’ lawyer and for ‘giving importance to detail’ and trying ‘to find a solution to a problem, rather than focusing on the problem’. Max is both English and Singapore qualified.
Recent work highlights
- Acting for a global commodity player in substantial claims under a letter of credit against the issuing bank. This is the leading case on letters of credit in Singapore.
- Assisting a trade finance bank in the cross-jurisdictional pursuit and recovery of multi-million dollar claims, in the wake of the collapse of a substantial commodities player.
- Acting for a ship finance bank in a successful mortgage enforcement that was concluded from arrest to payment out in record time.
- Representing a shipyard on its termination dispute with buyers relating to the construction and delivery of a jack-up drilling rig.
- Acting for shipowners in a complex arbitration under a bareboat charterparty for a top-end offshore support vessel, securing a substantial award of damages.
- Advising on commercial shipping matters, including regulatory and compliance matters, sanctions, due diligence, and structuring, with active involvement in the electronic bills of lading space.
