Hatty Sumption

Full Profile

Hatty is a Partner in the Marine International Trade group. She has been at Clyde & Co since 1995 when she joined the Hong Kong office. Hatty was admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and practised there until 1999 when she returned to London. Hatty became a Partner in 2001. 

Her core areas of practice are commodity trading disputes (predominantly oil, coal and metals trading, although she also has experience of biofuels, grains and fertilisers) and related charterparty, bill of lading, letter of credit and ship sale and purchase matters. For her commodity trading clients, she has also handled a number of disputes arising out of company or asset disposals/acquisitions, share purchase agreements, joint venture agreements, shareholder agreements and financing arrangements. 

Hatty has extensive experience of high court and arbitration proceedings, acting for clients in mediations and in multi-jurisdictional cases involving working closely with foreign lawyers and overseeing proceedings in other jurisdictions.

For both physical commodities and shipping work, Hatty has been consistently recognised as one of the notable individuals at Clyde & Co by Legal 500 and by Chambers, which have described her, variously, and as “a first-rate litigator, rightly regarded as one of the very best, and a joy to work with” and "an outstanding contentious practitioner" with "a formidable reputation".

Hatty speaks fluent French and has a basic knowledge of Italian. She is joint series editor of the Lloyds Shipping Law Library, a series of leading text books on shipping matters.

Experience

• Falkonera Shipping Company v Arcadia Energy Pte Ltd [2012]: Representing successful oil trader in relation to claims resulting from owners’ refusal to accept legitimate voyage orders (in this case to perform a Ship-to-Ship transfer into charterers' the nominated vessel)
• Glencore Energy (UK) Ltd v Transworld Oil Ltd [2010]: Representing successful oil trader seller in a claim for non-performance by the buyer under an oil sale contract.  This case is often cited as one of the few cases dealing with the effect of hedging on the damages that can be claimed
• Macquarie Internationale Investments Ltd v. Glencore UK Ltd [2009]: Acted for the successful Defendant, both in the Commercial Court and in the Court of Appeal, in a breach of warranty claim arising out of a share sale and purchase agreement for the sale of a UK gas retail business. The case has been described as “the leading case on warranties in company accounts”
• Acting for successful Claimant in arbitration before the LCIA in a claim for payment for oil delivered under complex financing arrangements, involving issues of title and foreign law
• Acting for the Russian CIF seller of cargo of fertiliser wrongly rejected at the discharge port for reasons of quality and condition
• Acting in London High Court proceedings for the successful seller of biofuel (FAME) wrongly rejected on the basis of alleged failure to meet the specification for water content
• Acting for successful claimant in LCIA arbitration regarding buyer non-performance under a term coal sale agreement, on grounds of alleged breach of quality specifications, involving questions of final and binding clauses and testing and sampling methods