Contact Sian
Sian Heard is a shipping specialist with over 30 years commercial shipping litigation experience. Sian was a partner at a leading shipping law firm before founding her own firm in 2004. Before joining Excello, Sian worked as a consultant for the boutique maritime law firm Roose and Partners.
Sian is instructed by insurers and principals in a disputes arising under charterparties, ship sale and purchase and shipping derivative contracts. She frequently represents shipbrokers and ship agents and has extensive experience of agency law. She handles arbitrations under LMAA, ICC and LCIA rules and has vast experience of litigation in the English High Court. Her objective is to achieve dispute resolution, whether via formal mediation or otherwise, before the expense of a hearing and she takes particular care to ensure that cost spend is proportionate and carefully managed.
After starting her own firm, she was frequently asked to provide employment law advice to her shipping clients, and has over 20 years’ experience advising on employment contracts, with an emphasis on the enforceability of restrictive covenants, team moves and performance management.
Her recent experience includes a complex LCIA arbitration involving issues of fraud arising out of the Lava Jato scandal in which she secured an award of damages for her clients in excess of USD20 million.
Sian's Experience
- Marine and Commercial Litigation/International Arbitration:
- Disputes involving voyage/period contracts, bareboat charterparties, COAs, shipbuilding, and maritime agreements.
- Laytime and demurrage claims, off-hire disputes and termination disputes (frustration, repudiatory breach, cancellation).
- Unseaworthiness, breach of maintenance provisions, bunker contamination, and safe port disputes.
- Shipbuilding/modification disputes, engine/crane/hatch cover issues, and breach of warranty claims.
- Agency/Intermediaries:
- Alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, warranty of authority, and misrepresentation/negligent misstatement.
- Experience with contract termination, renegotiation, and collection of commissions/fees.
- Cargo Claims/Bill of Lading Disputes:
- Unseaworthiness
- Cargo contamination
- dangerous cargo
- shortages
- misdelivery claims.
- Procedural:
- freezing orders, applications for interim payment, summary judgments and jurisdiction disputes
- cross-border litigation.
- ship arrests within the UK, USA, South Africa, France and Turkey
- property inspection orders
- enforcement proceedings.
- General Commercial:
- Drafting and reviewing period charterparties
- Drafting standard trading terms.
- Analysing offshore trust structures in tracing calims
- Claims against trustees for negligence.
- Employment:
- Advising on restrictive covenants, team moves, capability reviews, and drafting/updating employment contracts.
Sian goes to the theatre as much as possible (particularly fringe). She is a keen swimmer, love cycling (albeit only as a commuter) and she is a long standing yoga practitioner (and a weekend yoga teacher). Her garden is her joy and is full of flowers for as much of the year as possible.