HFW shipping partner Claire Womersley has been named 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 globally.
Claire specialises in crisis response and ‘wet’ litigation arising from marine casualties, with a particular focus on collisions, groundings and salvage, and related issues such as limitation and general average. She also advises on personal injury and cyber.
She is regularly instructed on the market’s highest-profile matters, most recently acting for the ship owners and P&I insurers of the container vessel MV Ever Given, which blocked the Suez Canal for six days in the most significant shipping and global markets matter in recent times.
Claire is a Master Mariner and previously spent almost a decade at sea, reaching the rank of First Officer. She was recently awarded the Merchant Navy Medal – a state award within the British honours system – for services to women and diversity in the maritime industry.
Claire Womersley, Partner, HFW:
“It is humbling to be on a list that has previously included a number of my influential mentors at HFW, as well as several distinguished opponents, all of whom I hold in such high regard.”
It is the fourth consecutive year that an HFW partner has been named by Lloyd’s List as one of the market’s top 10 shipping lawyers. HFW’s Global Head of Shipping Paul Dean featured in the list in 2019 and 2020, and shipping partner Rory Butler was included in 2018.
HFW has the world’s leading shipping and maritime law practice, and has been serving clients in the industry for almost 140 years.
The firm has more than 200 shipping lawyers and nine Master Mariners across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, specialising in dry shipping, admiralty and crisis management, and transactional work.
HFW has more top-tier rankings for shipping in Chambers and The Legal 500 than any other law firm.
