Stuart Dench

Stuart is a Partner at Hannaford Turner with over 25 years’ experience dealing with shipping and commodity issues.  Stuart acts on behalf of shipowners, charterers, pool operators, commodity traders, shipmanagers and their insurers on a wide range of dry shipping matters including disputes in relation to charterparties, contracts of affreightment, bills of lading, guarantees and ship sale and purchase agreements.

Stuart has acted in numerous arbitrations (LMAA, ICC, LCIA, GAFTA and FOSFA) as well as in a number of high-profile English court proceedings on disputes involving the termination of long-term charters, unsafe port claims, bunker contamination claims and cargo damage and quality issues.  

Stuart’s recently reported cases include:

Geden Operations v Dry Bulk Handy Holding Inc (The “Bulk Uruguay”) [2014] 2 Lloyds Rep 66, 

Shagang South-Asia (Hong Kong) Trading Co Ltd v Daewoo Logistics [2015] Lloyds Rep 21, 

SDTM-CI v Continental Lines N.V. (The “Sea Miror”) [2015] EWHC 1747, 

MUR Joint Ventures BV v Compagnie Monegasque De Banque [2016] EWHC 3107, 

MUR Shipping B.V. v Louis Dreyfuss Company Suisse S.A. (The “Tiger Shanghai”) [2019] EWHC 3240, 

Navison Shipping A/S v Precious Pearls Ltd; Conti Lines Shipping NV v Navison Shipping A/S (The “Mookda Naree” [2021] EWHC 558, 

Euronav N.V. v Repsol Trading S.A. (The “Maria”) [2021] EWHC 2565 and 

Rhine Shipping DMCC v Vitol SA [2023] EWHC 1265.  

Stuart has also represented clients in one of the leading cases on the interpretation of force majeure provisions before the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in MUR Shipping BV v RTI Ltd [2022] 2 Lloyds Rep 297, [2023] 1 Lloyds Rep 463 with the decision of the Supreme Court awaited.

Clients Stuart has worked for include Tankers International LLC, Bocimar NV, CMB NV, Exmar NV, MUR Shipping BV, Strategic Bulk Carriers Inc., Conti Lines NV, Canfornav Ltd, Jadroplov, Integra Petrochemicals Pte Ltd, Petraco Oil Company SA, Steinbock Barite Ltd and various P&I Clubs and FD&D insurers.

Prior to qualifying as a solicitor, Stuart worked for an International Group P & I Club so has a broad experience of claims handling both within and outside a law firm. Stuart qualified in 1998 at Lawrence Graham and was at Lawrence Graham until setting up Lax & Co LLP in May 2007 with Mike Lax. Stuart is recognised in The Legal 500, UK edition (2024) for his “efficient case handling”.