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A portait picture of Matt Hannaford

Matt Hannaford

Managing Partner

Matt is a founding partner of Hannaford Turner LLP and is currently the Managing Partner.

Matt trained at Clifford Chance from 1993 to 1995 and upon qualification joined their international maritime group. After a further ten years at Clifford Chance, in 2005, Matt joined Clyde & Co in London to head up their ship finance team.

In 2014, Matt decided to move away from the big law firm model and joined a boutique shipping and offshore law firm in the City of London. In 2016, when the boutique firm was being acquired by a large US law firm, Matt had formed the view that, with so many of the traditional London maritime law firms expanding and moving into other sectors, there were clear opportunities for a firm that could demonstrate, not only its maritime law expertise but a laser focus on the maritime sector.

This vision was shared by Justin Turner, Owen McHugh and Keith Krut and in 2016, they established Hannaford Turner.

  • In a career spanning over thirty years Matt has developed expertise in a wide range of transactional shipping law areas including ship finance, newbuilding and conversion projects, acquisitions and joint ventures. He regularly works on complex finance transactions for newbuilding projects (frequently involving export credit agency coverage), PE and investor projects (debt and equity), joint ventures and second-hand ship sale transactions.
  • Matt’s clients include ship owners, operators, brokers, banks and private equity funds. He is also the go-to maritime counsel for a number of US and other international law firms when they are representing clients on shipping related projects.
  • In addition to having experience in a wide range of commercial maritime sectors (including cruise, tankers, fishing vessels, reefers and bulk carriers), Matt has worked extensively on projects in the large yacht sector.