Andrew Rourke

Full Profile

After spending ten years in the firm's Guildford office as part of the marine and international trade team, he moved to the Shanghai office in 2013 and now leads a team of lawyers based in both Shanghai/PRC and Guildford/UK.

Andrew handles various commercial disputes, particularly shipping and trading disputes, both in the Admiralty and Commercial Court in London and in arbitration (particularly LMAA and ICC in London and HKIAC in Hong Kong). His clients include shipping, trading and energy companies, predominantly in China and Europe as much of his work relates to the trading and carriage of oil, gas and petrochemical products. He also handles cases dealing with hard and soft commodities. Andrew advises on the full range of “dry” shipping issues including all aspects of voyage and time charters and bills of lading as well as on the drafting of trading contracts and charterparties.

In addition, Andrew represents clients in a wide range of commercial disputes and international arbitrations in areas such as upstream and offshore energy, ship building, logistics/CMR, banking/ finance and telecoms. He also acts for clients in numerous mediations.

Andrew speaks fluent English and German.

Experience

• Shipping - Advising on issues such as demurrage, off hire, performance warranties/speed and consumption, exercise of lien over cargo and freight, claims for loss of and damage to cargo; clausing bills of lading, letters of indemnity, missed laycans, cancellation of charterparties, misdelivery of cargoes, vetting issues, unsafe ports, piracy and unseaworthiness
• London/LMAA arbitration relating to the failure of a VLCC to commence the approach voyage on time and meet the ETA and laycan in a voyage charterparty
• Hong Kong/HKIAC arbitrations (subject to English law) relating to demurrage claims totaling over USD 6 million under a series of voyage charterparties
• Time charterparties - Advising on and drafting long term time charterparties for a fleet of new build LNG carriers
• Unsafe ports – Investigating and advising on allegations of breach of the safe port warranty in a charterparty
• Ship arrest – Assisting cargo owners in securing the release/delivery of multi-million dollar cargoes on board vessels arrested in the Netherlands, Turkey and Singapore
• International trade – Advising on a variety of trading disputes regarding issues such as shortage, contamination, non-payment and force majeure as well as advising on the drafting of trading contracts, particularly in relation to the sale/purchase of petrochemical products
• English High Court claim relating to non-payment under physical and paper trading contracts
• FOSFA arbitration – Advising clients in relation to claims against them under a purchase contract and their indemnity claim under a sale contract in relation to a string sale
• Security/enforcement - Advising clients on measures to secure their claims and to enforce arbitration awards and Court judgments in multiple jurisdictions (ship arrest, asset preservation orders, freezing orders)