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.