Richard Murray is a Senior Associate with a broad international litigation practice focused on marine insurance, major casualty handling, commercial shipping, shipbuilding and yachting. He has extensive experience of running complex high value claims before the English Commercial and Admiralty Courts, London Maritime Arbitration (LMAA) tribunals and other specialist proceedings under a variety of institutional rules.
Based in London, Richard previously trained and worked at a leading shipping law firm. He has acted for (re)insurers of hull and machinery, liability, cargo and war risks in the UK, European and East Asian markets. As well as international P&I clubs, shipowners, charterers, marine engineers, shipyards, private security contractors, oil majors, banks, commodities houses, and government departments. He also completed a 6-month in-house claims secondment with a marine insurance syndicate at Lloyds.
In addition to handing commercial disputes under charter parties, contracts of carriage, build contracts and insurance policies; Richard’s experience extends to all matters involving limitation of liability (including fund setup), salvage, towage, general average, dive spreads, piracy response, collisions, wreck removal, arrest (security) proceedings, and obtaining jurisdictional (anti-suit) and injunctive relief.
Beyond litigation, Richard has provided assistance on the drafting of multiple transactional documents, policy wordings and revision of statutory rules. He has also given ad hoc opinions or presentations on specialised sub-disciplines, including autonomous shipping, Smart Contracts, treasure, war graves and heritage sites, fisheries, demining and prize law.
Richard is a 2005 graduate of the London School of Economics and was later awarded a research distinction from the University of Cape Town. Prior to being admitted as a Solicitor-Advocate in 2015 and called to the Bar the following year, he was in-house counsel and board company secretary for a leading marine security contractor in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq. He has served with the British Army on operational tours in the Persian Gulf, and brings valuable diplomatic and military input to the global outlook of his legal practice.