Scope of Work
The UAE's economy is built on the sea in ways that are hard to overstate: ports that rank among the busiest in the world, merchant fleets crossing its waters daily, and a chartering and marine insurance market that grows year on year. In such an environment, a maritime dispute is not a legal curiosity but a daily reality, one on which vessels, cargoes and contracts worth millions depend, and in which time limits are counted in hours rather than days.
The firm handles the maritime file in all its detail: from applications for the precautionary arrest of vessels and their release against appropriate security, through charterparty disputes, bills of lading and cargo claims, to marine insurance policies and coverage disputes, collision, salvage and general average, and on to shipbuilding contracts, sale and purchase, registration and mortgages, together with the crew matters, port authority and flag-state dealings that accompany them.
This is the firm's signature practice and its professional hallmark. It is the practice in which deep study of the maritime regimes meets practical experience of running the file.
What We Do
- Ship arrest and release before the UAE courts, including urgent applications, security arrangements and letters of undertaking
- Charterparty disputes of every form: voyage charters, time charters and bareboat charters
- Bills of lading and carriage documentation, and the claims and defences arising between shipper, carrier and consignee
- Cargo claims for loss, damage, shortage and delay in delivery, and the recourse actions that follow them
- Marine insurance: policy drafting and review, and coverage and indemnity disputes with insurers and P&I clubs
- Collision, salvage and general average, and the apportionment of the liabilities they give rise to
- Shipbuilding contracts, sale and purchase and memoranda of agreement (MOA), together with registration and ship mortgages
- Crew matters: employment terms, wage and injury claims, and repatriation arrangements
- Representation before port authorities and flag-state administrations on registration, inspection and regulatory compliance
Our Approach
A maritime file leaves no room for improvisation: an arrested vessel loses money every day, and maritime time bars are among the shortest in the law. We therefore begin where counsel should begin, with rigorous research into the statutes, the conventions and the customs of the shipping trade, followed by a candid assessment of the merits before any procedural step is taken. We tell you what the law says, not what you hope to hear.
And because the documents of this trade are born in English while the litigation is largely conducted in Arabic, we work in both languages to the same standard of precision: we read the charterparty and the policy in their original language, and we plead in exacting legal Arabic, so that nothing of your case is lost between the two.