Sarah Hill-Smith

Full Profile

Sarah is an Associate in the Climate Liability & Risk team in London, where she advises insurers and companies in other industries (including energy, trade and commodities, natural resources, and technology) on their exposure to climate-related liabilities and risks (including regulatory, litigation and transition risk). In her climate change consultancy work, she advises on and helps clients shape and implement mitigation and transition strategies.

Before joining the Climate Liability & Risk team, Sarah qualified as a disputes lawyer at Clyde & Co, specialising in arbitration and commercial litigation. She worked on a diverse range of contentious matters but has particular experience in the energy and commodities sectors (including commodities trading and energy disputes arising under Product Sharing Agreements in the Middle East), as well as general commercial and corporate disputes. Sarah has practical experience of arbitration under major institutional rules (including the LCIA, ICC, ICSID and trade bodies’ rules) as well as litigation in the UK courts of all levels.

Sarah volunteers with Legal Response International and attended COP26 and COP28 to provide free legal advice to climate-vulnerable countries during negotiations. Sarah also spent 6 months on secondment to The [Chancery Lane] Project, where she worked on climate clauses for commercial contracts across all sectors. She is also Vice Chair of Legal Voices for the Future, an initiative aimed at educating junior lawyers on the climate and ecological crises.

Sarah is currently on secondment to The Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI) where she specialises in climate-related corporate governance and clarifying directors' and fiduciary duties in relation to climate and nature-related risk through independent legal opinions and white papers. 

Experience

Arbitration

• Acting for a Middle Eastern State in various high value, French-seated ICC arbitration proceedings regarding claims arising under Product Sharing Agreements in the oil and gas sector
• Acting for a Middle Eastern distributor of pharmaceutical products in London-seated LCIA proceedings in relation to a dispute arising under an exclusive distribution agreement with a UK-based supplier 
• Representing Israeli company in grain trading dispute governed by FOSFA arbitration rules
• Acting for Middle Eastern trading company in LCIA arbitration relating to losses from commodities hedging

Commercial Litigation

• Representing large international energy supplier in various downstream general contractual and commercial disputes
• Defending large international energy supplier in portfolio of claims relating to allegations of fraud and bribery
• Acting for an African airline in dispute with payment provider regarding a data breach