Who we are

Paul is a Legal Director with Tatham & Co and senior member of the firm’s Admiralty team. He is a Master Mariner with command experience and spent 16 years at sea on a variety of vessels including LPG carriers and cruise ships before moving into the offshore sector on DP classed vessels.

Paul qualified as a solicitor in 2009 and spent 9 years working in London at an Admiralty law firm becoming a partner before moving to a large regional firm to help develop their Admiralty practice. Paul is experienced in wet and dry aspects of shipping practice, with a particular specialism in collisions, salvage, groundings, container ship incidents, fires and so on.

He is part of the firm’s emergency response team, carrying out collision or casualty investigations and advising on liability and the handling of disputes and claims. He regularly advises in salvage cases for both shipowners and their insurers as well as salvors.

This has included a number of high-profile casualties such as the RENA, HOEGH OSAKA and the CCNI ARAUCO.

Paul has assisted salvors and P&I Clubs with negotiations and drafting of wreck removal contracts. Paul also regularly advises on ‘dry’ charterparty disputes such as unsafe port, unseaworthiness issues including the carriage of goods, stevedore damage and other incidents in or out of port.

He is a member of the firm’s TugAdvise team providing specialist legal services to the harbour tug, ocean towage and OSV sectors. Paul has recently been elected as the secretary to the Admiralty Solicitors Group (the ASG).

The ASG is comprised of established maritime legal firms and was formed in 1972 to promote and preserve standards in the practice of maritime law in England. The ASG meets regularly to discuss recent issues and maritime practice.