UK leads world in legal maritime services

English law firms dominate the market in providing legal services to the international maritime industry, a survey released last week has revealed.Published by British Invisibles - which promotes UK financial services worldwide - the survey also found that London law firms generated around 200 million in maritime-related fee-income in the 1998/1999 accounting year.

Of that, 170 million was on behalf of overseas customers.The historical dominance of the UK was accepted by researchers as playing a part in ensuring that English law was more widely applied to shipping disputes than that of other countries.

However, it also found that there was 'widespread confidence' among the international ship-owning, chartering, ship finance and marine insurance communities in the 'fairness, expertise and efficacy of English lawyers, courts, arbitrators and other private dispute resolution processes', which also contributed to the UK's success.Other factors, such as the size of the commercial shipping communities and the presence of international shipping organisations, also helped London to retain the UK's dominance, the survey found.Derek Hodgson, joint head of shipping at City-based Clyde & Co, which sponsored the survey, said London had always led the world in shipping law and that he could not see the situation changing.Denying that there was any complacency, Mr Hodgson added: 'It is a very competitive market internally where clients can change firms very easily.

We are all still very proactive in finding work and broadcasting our services worldwide, which continues to lend to our pre-eminence.'Statistics show that the Commercial Court issues 750 to 1,000 maritime-related writs each year.

Figures from the London Maritime Arbitrators Association show that its 39 full-time arbitrators make about 500 awards in the 3,000 to 3,500 arbitrations they undertake each year.

This figure does not take into account the additional work done by some 800 part-time arbitrators, including solicitors and barristers.

Sue Allen