Tom joined Quadrant Chambers in October 2023, upon successful completion of his pupillage. He accepts instructions across Chambers’ core areas, including commercial litigation, shipping, insurance, banking, and commodities.

Before pupillage, Tom completed the BCL at Oxford, obtaining a Distinction overall and the Peter Birks Prize for coming top of the year in Restitution of Unjust Enrichment. Tom achieved a Distinction in both the GDL and the Bar Course, and was awarded the William Rose Prize for obtaining the highest mark in his year for Drafting. Before coming to law, Tom graduated with a first-class degree in History.

His work so far has included:

• Appearing as sole counsel in the Commercial Court and the County Court for trials and a range of applications;
• Settling pleadings and arbitration submissions in a range of charterparty disputes, cargo claims and commodities cases;  
• Advising on a range of insurance matters, including the construction of various professional indemnity policies; 
• Advising on a range of charterparty disputes; 
• Working with Tom Nixon and Robert-Jan Temmink KC on the pending appeal to the Supreme Court in Zavarco plc v Nasir;
• Drafting GAFTA appeal submissions in a claim concerning issues of equitable set-off and abatement as a result of cargo contamination; and
• Advising on issues of jurisdiction in arbitration.

During his pupillage, Tom worked in a variety of commercial contexts, with a particular focus on shipping and commodities disputes. Examples of the work Tom assisted with during pupillage are:

• Assisting Caroline Pounds on the Commercial Court dispute between the owners of the “Ever Given” and Smit Salvage B.V. (Smit Salvage BV & Ors v Luster Maritime SA & Anr (The ‘Ever Given’) [2023] EWHC 697 (Admlty)).
• Assisting Ben Gardner and Stewart Buckingham KC on the successful appeal to the Supreme Court in JTI Polska Sp Z o.o. and Ors v Jakubowski & Ors [2023] UKSC.
• Assisting Benjamin Coffer in a successful application for summary judgment/strike out of a buyer’s restitutionary claim on the basis that it was time-barred (Anron Bunkering v Glencore Energy [2023] EWHC 295 (Comm)).
• Assisting Tom Bird in a Commercial Court dispute (settled before trial) concerning a multi-million collision dispute that centred on issues of seaworthiness that arose out of the Supreme Court decision in The CMA GCM Libra.
• Assisting Caroline Pounds in an application for an anti-suit injunction in the Commercial Court, which raised complex issues of incorporation and private international law.
• Drafting pleadings in a range of charterparty and commodities disputes as well as cargo claims.
• Assisting supervisors on points of restitutionary law, the role of good faith in contracts, and conflict of laws issues.
• Advising (as a pupil) on the possible causes of action available to an individual who had allegedly been unfairly prosecuted at the hands of a foreign state. The advice covered topics as diverse as malicious prosecution, the availability of anti-suit injunctions against non-parties, the possibility of founding jurisdiction on the basis of a party being unable to receive substantial justice in a foreign jurisdiction, and the effect of international sanctions on bringing contractual claims against foreign companies.  
• Advising (as a pupil) as to whether an owner could recover from a charterer the costs of having taken out additional insurance cover for risks associated with the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Black Sea.  
• Advising (as a pupil) on whether a lender was entitled to include a cross-default provision in a complex loan facility by reason of a Braganza-style contractual discretion in the loan agreement.   
• Drafting collision statements of case.  
• Advising (as a pupil) on the recoverability of loss of bargain damages under an advertising agreement between an airline and an advertising company that was purportedly terminated as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The case involved issues such as the oral modification of contracts and the interplay between contractual and common-law rights of termination. 

Tom has a particular interest in cases involving claims for restitution of unjust enrichment and has experience of this area in both a professional and academic setting.