Full Profile
Puneet is an ex-seafarer who sailed on merchant vessels across the globe for 15 years and obtained his unlimited Master Mariner licence from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, UK in 2016. Further, he was admitted to the Senior Courts as a Solicitor in August 2024.
Now, as a Master Mariner & Solicitor in the energy, marine and natural resources team of Clyde & Co, he works as an in-house consultant/case handler for a wide variety of contentious disputes across the maritime legal sector. His utilisation spans across all key Clyde & Co offices globally which practice maritime law – Guildford, London, Manchester, Hamburg, Paris, Dubai, Singapore and Perth to name a few. His core expertise lies in assisting the clients and teams in analysing and fortifying the technical arguments in conjunction with the legal arguments on dry as well as wet maritime disputes. By virtue of his extensive experience on all types of tanker vessels, his ‘cargo skills’ are particularly useful in complex tanker related (contamination/shortage) claims.
Before joining Clyde & Co, he has also worked as a Claims Executive at a leading IG P&I Club where he was actively handling matters, as well as supporting the team with a multitude of claims varying from crew matters, cargo claims, FFO incidents, pollution incidents, collision liabilities, salvage and wreck removal operations; as well as demurrage, bunker claims, underperformance and a variety of charterparty disputes.
Puneet has an LLM in International Maritime Law (Distinction) from Swansea University.
Experience
- Assisting clients on a live matter involving extensive cross-contamination of clean petroleum products, active involvement in mitigation of losses and identifying root cause of the incident.
- Defending GA contribution claims in circumstances involving passage planning on ECDIS, and other key aspects to ensure due diligence is exercised to make a ship seaworthy
- Providing technical assistance on maritime casualties in Belgium, Gibraltar, Malta, Romania, Turkey, Sudan, India and Australia. Taking witness statements, reviewing experts’ reports, analysing VDR data, engaging with local authorities and surveyors, organising oil spill mitigation measures, and engaging with local lawyers to understand the national applicable laws governing oil spill and wreck removal liability on behalf of P&I as well as H&M insurers.
- Pursuing litigation in Admiralty Court for a collision incident, assisting the clients recover their loss of hire claim against the opponents.
- Assisting clients on a live matter dealing with ‘dangerous cargo’ which involved dealing with a deteriorating grain cargo being transported across multiple jurisdictions and obtaining an order from the High Court in England which granted rights to the carrier to dispose the cargo.
- Advising clients in relation to claims concerning shortage and / or contamination of liquid as well as dry cargoes including assistance with filling the evidential gaps towards quantity and quality disputes
