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Harriet Thornton

Legal Director

Harriet specialises in shipping and trading disputes and general commercial litigation.  Harriet has a broad range of litigation (Chancery, High Court and the Appellate Courts) and arbitration experience (including LMAA, LCIA and ad hoc regimes) regularly acting for commodity trading companies, shipowners, operators, charterers, P&I Clubs and banks.

Harriet spent a year on secondment at one of the world's largest energy and commodity trading companies and shorter periods at an investment company, which focuses on opportunities in the physical commodities markets. Through these secondments Harriet has developed her understanding of the commercial realities of her clients' businesses and gained invaluable experience of the operational decisions required during the ‘live’ stages of a dispute.

Our Services

Recent Experience

Successfully representing Owners in an LMAA arbitration claim for sums owing under an NYPE charterparty including damages for late redelivery, unpaid hire, reimbursement of cleaning costs and losses suffered under the vessel’s subsequent fixture on account of it having been redelivered in a fouled condition.

Successfully representing Owners in SK Shipping Europe Ltd v Capital VLCC 3 Corp (C Challenger) [2022] EWCA Civ 231, in which the Court of Appeal clarified several points in the law of misrepresentation, including the circumstances in which a representation of fact will be implied from the offer of a contractual term, the effect of a reservation of rights on an alleged affirmation, and the operation of section 2(2) of the Misrepresentation Act 1967 concerning damages in lieu of rescission.

Advising a major Nigerian bank on the imposition of trust relationships and in particular quistclose trusts in the context of international bank transfers involving correspondent banks, in which judgment entered against the bank was successfully overturned in the Court of Appeal in a claim pleaded at over US$210 million (FCMB v Zumax [2019] EWCA Civ 294).

Obtaining summary judgment against a trading company that took delivery of a cargo of gasoil oil but failed to honour its payment obligations and advising on subsequent enforcement steps, including a Part 71 application to cross examine a director of the defendant about the judgment debtor's means.

Advising a charterer and cargo owner in London arbitration proceedings commenced under the bill of lading and charterparty in respect of the confiscation of a gasoil cargo worth over US$20 million, resulting from the shipowner's alleged breaches of the UN Security Council Resolution on the blockade of Yemen.

Advising a global commodities trader in LCIA arbitration proceedings commenced to recover damages for non-performance of sale and purchase contracts for aluminium and selenium.

Representing a mining company in an ad hoc arbitration claim brought in relation to sums allegedly due under a "take or pay" handling agreement for the transhipment of coal.

Defending charterers in an LMAA arbitration relating to damage caused following two collisions during ship-to-ship transfer operations off Cotonou, West Africa.

If you require assistance please contact us or request a call back.