Andrew Hughes

Andrew was educated at Birmingham University, qualifying as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1982 and in Hong Kong in 1986. He worked at the Hong Kong office of Richards Butler (now Reed Smith) for 13 years, returning to their London office in 1999. He joined MFB in 2005.

Andrew has considerable experience dealing with shipping disputes in the Far East, which he visits frequently.

Andrew’s practice areas include charterparty and bill of lading disputes, P&I and Defence work, shipbuilding disputes, marine insurance and maritime arbitration. Andrew acts for shipowners, charterers, P&I Clubs, ship operators and managers, cargo and hull underwriters, reinsurers, banks, container leasing companies, commodity producers and traders.

Whilst marine work forms a large part of Andrew's practice, he has acted and continues to act in commodity disputes.

Most recent cases (in the past months/year) have involved:

1. Acting for a German buyer of durum wheat against a UK seller in a dispute regarding payment of the purchase price of US$7,230,000 under a letter of credit where our clients held the seller in repudiatory breach. The contract was subject to Gafta No. 30. The clients were successful in achieving the result they desired within a month of our being instructed.

2. Acting for a Greek refinery who were the buyers under a Term Contract against a UK oil major (the sellers) where the sellers failed to deliver shipments of BS150. The amount in dispute was over US$2,000,000. The Term Contract incorporated the seller’s standard Terms and Conditions which were unfavourable to the clients. The clients resolved the dispute with the seller on a commercial basis.

Slightly less ‘pure commodity’ work within the past year includes:

3. Acting for a US oil major against the owners of a vessel in relation to a claim for contamination of a cargo of 67,000 barrels of Jet A fuel oil. This is an LMAA arbitration.

4. Acting for a Luxembourg oil and gas trader in respect of a claim by a Dubai oil company for over US$16M being unpaid hire for an oil rig. The matter is subject to UNCITRAL Rules arbitration in Dubai.

Andrew is regularly named as a leading shipping lawyer in The Legal 500 and in The Legal 500 2021 rankings was named as a "brilliant practitioner". Andrew was listed in The Legal 500’s inaugural Hall of Fame in 2018.