OVERVIEW
On International Women's' Day, we thought it was a good moment to pause and reflect on what has been a very busy past 12 months for the women of Quadrant Chambers.
Our Head of Chambers, Poonam Melwani KC, was awarded the prestigious Shipping Silk of the Year award at the Chambers UK Bar Awards in November and we were delighted to welcome in May, Sarah Longden, formerly our Business Development Director, into her new post as Chief Operating Officer.
Highlights of the work of our female Members from the last 12 months, both in and out of court, include:
- Emily Saunderson was nominated for Financial
Services and Insurance Junior of the Year at the Legal 500 Bar
Awards.
- Saira Paruk is preparing for an imminent
expedited Court of Appeal hearing to determine whether - and if so
in what circumstances – a party's right to challenge an
arbitral Award upon enforcement under the New York Convention in a
foreign jurisdiction trumps its contractual obligation to have its
dispute arbitrated in London.
- Maya Chilaeva attended a meeting of the
Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts in Doha. She
acted as Rapporteur and produced a report of the meeting which
captures the views of judiciaries from across the world on
important themes such as the role of AI in the legal sector and
corporate activity and the rule of law.
- Natalie Moore has continued to act for the
Claimant shipowners and related parties in the litigation arising
out of the sinking of the X-PRESS PEARL off Sri Lanka in 2021 which
was widely reported in the press. In the last 12 months, Natalie
has appeared in the following reported cases arising out of the
casualty: The London Steam-Ship Owners' Mutual
Insurance Association Ltd v Trico Maritime &
Others [2024] EWHC 884 (Comm) (anti-suit injunction);
Sea Consortium PTE Ltd (t/a X-Press Feeders) v Bengal
Tiger Line PTE Ltd [2024] EWHC 3174 (Admlty)
(limitation of liability by charterer).
- Ruth Hosking successfully obtained an anti-suit
injunction having only been given 10 minutes notice of the hearing,
obtained an order for costs despite being the applicant for Norwich
Pharmacal relief and cross examined an expert witness in front of
four former Court of Appeal judges.
- Caroline Pounds was described as "one of
the best barristers in the country" by one of the leading
directories, Chambers Bar UK 2025.
- Claire Stockford was appointed on the Panel of
International Arbitrators of the Kigali International Arbitration
Center (KIAC) and spoke at Quadrant Chambers' International
Arbitration Review of the Year on the topic of environmental
disputes.
- Gemma Morgan acted as junior counsel for the
successful Claimant in Eternity Sky v
Zhang [2024] EWCA Civ 630. The Court upheld an
arbitration award and rejected the argument that it was
unenforceable on the basis that the guarantee contract which the
defendant had signed fell foul of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Gemma, conducting the oral advocacy on this ground, successfully
persuaded the Court to overturn the judge's finding below that
the defendant was a 'consumer' within the meaning of s.2(3)
of the CRA.
- Poonam led Lydia Myers in arbitration proceedings worth
over USD 1 billion involving the termination of twenty-four
shipbuilding contracts for repudiatory and/or renunciatory breach
by the builder. Lydia was ranked as a 'Rising Star' by
Legal 500 2025.
- Nicola Allsop was successful in obtaining
summary judgment for her clients in multi-million dollar claims in
the Commercial Court against a company and its director:
CE Energy DMCC v Ultimate Oil & Gas
DMCC [2025] EWHC 297 (Comm)
- Nichola Warrender KC was described as a
"true expert in shipping-related matters" by one
of the leading directories, Chambers Bar UK 2025.
- Celine Honey was led in a three-week arbitration, concerning a 20-million-dollar warranty claim, where her clients achieved a resounding victory. Celine was also ranked as a 'Rising Star' by Legal 500 2025.
In November Lucinda Hobden was the winner of the Quadrant Chambers Virtual Speed Moot, a brilliant event that gives many students a taste of life as an advocate. Well done Lucinda!
Finally, in January many female students joined us for our annual Women in Chambers Student Event and heard from some of our female Members on life at the Commercial Bar and Quadrant and why choosing a career at the Bar can be a brilliant choice for women.
The theme for International Women's Day 2025 is
"Accelerate Action" for women's equality. With this
in mind, Quadrant Chambers has made a donation to Smart Works, a
charity which is on a mission to help women break the cycle of
hardship that results from being unemployed. They do this by
helping unemployed women get the coaching, clothing and confidence
they need to secure employment. They have 11 centres across England
and Scotland and have helped more than 40,000 women to date.
We are proud to support their mission. For more information about
Smart Works visit their website.