67 LEGAL AWARDS 2019 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM United Kingdom Nick Howe Solicitor PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAWYER OF THE YEAR About Nick Howe Solicitor Nick first set up on his own in 1998. In 2002 he was joined by some of his former partners from the Shipping Department of a large City firm to form Howe & Keates. He went back to practice on his own as Nick Howe Solicitor in 2008. Most of his work involves assisting clients involved in the trading and shipping of oil and petroleum products to or from the Sub-Saharan region of Africa, invariably involving foreign governments or state owned companies. Inevitably this entails a lot of firefighting work for clients operating in such climates, seeking to help embryonic projects get off the ground and to resolve potential problems before they get out of hand. He is frequently involved with larger matters of a both contentious and non-contentious nature: the contentious work has included working on a number of sizeable claims and subsequent recoveries (involving seven and eight figure sums); whereas the more interesting noncontentious work has included documenting some quite complex arrangements to supply the oil needs of a number of countries, both coastal and land-locked, as well as helping their governments to procure and maintain strategic stocks of oil. Nick’s most notable legal achievement to date was in bringing, on behalf of the Government of St Vincent & The Grenadines, the first two cases before the panel of 21 Judges in Hamburg at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (“ITLOS”). The cases arose from one of his client’s vessels and crew being shot at and taken hostage by the agencies of a West African government (The “SAIGA” Case No’s 1 & 2 - http://www.itlos.org/start2_en.html). Those proceedings led to the release of the vessel and crew, and to the subsequent recovery of damages to compensate for the losses that had been incurred. ITLOS has accepted a total of 28 cases between sovereign states to date, the majority of which seeking the release of vessels allegedly wrongfully detained by coastal states following the precedent set by the “SAIGA” Cases. Nick continues to be heavily active in this sort of work and is often involved with the governments concerned, although in the majority of instances he has been able to help the parties to resolve their differences without further recourse to ITLOS. Other reported Court decisions include: • The “Wilomi Tanana” [1993] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 41 • Addax –v- Total & others (The “Endurance”) [1996] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 333 • The “Red Sea” [1997] 1 LLR 610 & [1999] 1 Lloyd’s Rep. 28 (CA) • Ascot –v- Northern Pacific (The “Irini A”) [1999] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 189 & 196 • Addax –v- Arcadia Petroleum & others [2000] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 493 • ANZ –v- Noga [2007] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 487 • Bitumex (HK) Company Ltd –v- IRPC Public Company Ltd [2012] EWHC 1065 (Comm) Areas of Expertise • Public International Law relating to oil • Trading of oil and petroleum products • Shipping • Oil refining • Finance • Insurance • Hedging Contact Nick Howe St. Martin’s House, 16 St. Martin’s Le Grand, London, EC1A 4EN T: (44) (0) 207 397 8432 E: NickHowe@nickhowesolicitor.com NICK HOWE
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