Chirag Karia KC is a leading commercial silk with a broad commercial, international arbitration, energy, insurance, shipping and international trade practice. He appears in the Commercial Court, the Court of Appeal, the UK Supreme Court and international arbitrations. He is listed as a ‘Leading Silk’ for Shipping and Commodities disputes by Chambers UK, Chambers Global, The Legal 500 UK, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific and Who’s Who Legal and for Commercial disputes by Legal 500 EMEA. Chambers UK notes that:
"Chirag is able to swiftly unravel complex issues and present cogent, practical advice for clients." “He is very user-friendly, a very good advocate and excellent at cross-examining. He is a pleasure to work with." "He has great insight into the international aspects of dispute resolution, and is known for the quality of his written work as much as his forceful advocacy". “His diligent approach towards difficult and complex cases, combined with his detailed knowledge of the law, produces superb results".
The Legal 500 describes him as “A very rare combination of tenacious advocacy and academic excellence” and “an extremely intelligent, highly erudite and tactically astute barrister”.
Chirag is instructed on high level and important shipping, commodities, insurance/reinsurance and general commercial cases, usually multi-jurisdictional and vigorously fought. He is lead counsel for GTLK in its US$2.45 billion claim in the Russian Aircraft Operator Policy Claims against London and international reinsurers for the loss aircraft leased to Russian carriers following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and was lead counsel for the successful buyer in the UK Supreme Court in Sharp v Viterra [2024] UKSC 14 which is now a leading authority on the English law of damages and appeals against arbitral awards.
Over the past few years he has acted on: US$350 million claims arising from the Hin Leung and Ocean Tankers fraud in Singapore; Unipec v BP & others, a complex series of inter-related Commercial Court actions and LCIA arbitrations claiming over US$80 million in damages from multi-national oil companies as a result of the sale of salt-contaminated crude oil; The Ratna Suradha, a multi-party dispute, involving the sovereign states of Sudan and South Sudan as parties as to title to a US$60 million cargo of oil; Great Elephant Corp. v. Trafigura Beheer BV (“The Crudesky”), a five party “chain” dispute in which Chirag’s clients succeeded in the Commercial Court and then secured a substantially increased recovery from the Court of Appeal; and The Yusuf Cepnioglu, in which Chirag secured anti-suit injunctions against actions brought against his P&I Club client by third parties under Turkey’s right of direct action against liability insurers.
His cases range from charterparty, insurance/reinsurance, bill of lading and commodities disputes to complex oil & gas, share purchase, conflicts of laws and arbitration matters. He also sits as an arbitrator (most recently under the ICC, DIAC and LMAA rules), is a Registered Practitioner before the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts and teaches advocacy to barristers for Lincoln’s Inn.
He practised as an attorney in California before returning to the Bar of England & Wales – he is admitted to practise before all the Federal and State Courts in California, where he practiced for 10 years prior to returning to the Bar. Chirag’s US practice consisted of a wide range of commercial work, including international trade, oil and gas law, banking, securities fraud, conflicts of laws and intellectual property law. He has a number of reported Federal Court decisions.
Chirag graduated from Cambridge University with the top first in his year (winning the Slaughter and May Prize) and achieved First Class Honours in all three parts of the Law Tripos.
