Paul is Global Head of Shipping at HFW managing 200 specialist shipping lawyers across a worldwide network of 20 offices. Paul specialises in offshore and marine, focusing mainly on charter parties, bills of lading, shipbuilding, rig disputes, collisions, fire and explosion, salvage, general average, groundings, total loss, towage, seismic and limitation.

He regularly speaks at and chairs offshore vessel conferences and has been teaching on the BIMCO panel for their “Using SUPPLYTIME” course for over 10 years, the review committee for the SUPPLYTIME 2005 revision and on the drafting committee for BIMCO’s new standard form Offshore Dismantling Services Agreement DISMANTLECON. Experience gained working for an International Group P&I club specialising in offshore vessels, enables Paul to combine practical understanding with the legal role.

Paul is identified in the Legal Directories as one of the leading individuals in his fields, described by clients as a "tenacious litigator with vast experience in shipping and travel disputes" (Legal500 2022). Paul is recognised by Lloyd's List as one of the 100 most influential people in the maritime industry and one of the market's Top 10 lawyers in 2019 and 2020.

Paul has also contributed to the two most recent editions of “The Law Of Tug and Tow and Offshore Contracts” by Simon Rainey Q.C. – “...Paul Dean of HFW, one of the leading and busiest practitioners in the field of offshore contracts and a veritable guru on the topic of the BIMCO forms, particularly "Supplytime", who as before very kindly gave me the benefit of his great experience and practical insights and with whom once again I have had the great good fortune to work".

Paul is qualified in England and Wales and is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law (IISTL).