Waterson Hicks is a well established, City based legal practice whose expertise in shipping and commercial law is renowned.
Since 1990, our team of dedicated, skilful lawyers has successfully served an expanding client base.
Our highly specialised legal team offers an effective and speedy response to clients, with an emphasis on dry shipping, admiralty, marine insurance, commodities, ship sale & purchase and transactional work.
Our clients include major corporations and business entities, leading blue-chip companies, state-owned organisations, shipowners, oil companies, energy traders, insurers, P&I Clubs, financial institutions and governments.
Our commercially minded people, some of whom have over 40 years’ experience in legal practice, together with the firm’s commitment to quality are the cornerstone of our reputation, enabling us to deal successfully with the most substantial cases.
At Waterson Hicks we value a creative approach since our clients’ needs are increasingly complex and spread across geographic borders and jurisdictions and often there are no established solutions or precedents.
Waterson Hicks is at the heart of London’s shipping and commercial law world and delivers timely, individual and expert personal attention to each of our clients.
“Impress clients with their acumen, industry knowledge and value for money. Extremely creative in solving commercial disputes and very good negotiators”
“Exceptionally strong in matters relating to Shipping”
The Legal 500Our People
John Hicks
Principal
Edward Bayliss
Partner
Stuart Parkin
Admiralty Manager/ Consultant
Sofia Xylouri
Senior Associate Solicitor
Tom Hughes
Senior Associate Solicitor
Inigo Hunnable
Paralegal
Robert Green
Accounts & Office Manager
John Hicks
Principal
“John Hicks is one of the best lawyers I have come across in the maritime/insurance sector. His knowledge is vast, his commercial acumen second to none and he is respected across the industry. His success rate is also very high on cases.” (Legal 500)
“Formidable… vast experience in shipping related disputes valued for his experience, negotiating skills and business acumen” (Legal 500)
“… a force to be reckoned with who never stops until he gets a satisfactory result for his client” (Legal 500)
“Profound knowledge on all matters concerning shipping law” (Chambers and Partners)
“John provides prompt and very commercial advice, and fully understands how his clients operate and what advice they need”. (Chambers and Partners)
John Hicks originally qualified as a barrister and worked as an in-house lawyer for a number of years for a major P&I Club before becoming a principal of an average adjusting company. By the time he requalified as a solicitor in 1986 he was experienced in all areas of the marine market.
An all-rounder, he deals in both dry shipping and admiralty litigation, as well as ship sale and purchase, shipbuilding disputes and other non-contentious marine work. In addition to the more usual areas of practice he has particular specialist experience in handling MOA disputes and total losses.
John is listed in all of Legal 500, Chambers and Partners and Super Lawyers as one of the country’s top maritime lawyers.
His interests include art, architecture, tennis, opera and scuba diving.
Edward Bayliss
Partner
Edward specialises in both dry and wet shipping litigation and acts regularly for Owners, disponent Owners, Charterers and P&I Clubs. He acts for clients in LMAA Arbitrations and in High Court proceedings involving charterparty and bill of lading disputes and general average claims. He deals regularly with cargo claims and Inter Club Agreement claims, bunker quality disputes, groundings and collisions, speed and consumption claims, demurrage claims, crane damage claims, vessel arrests, safe port claims, unseaworthiness cases and disputes on the proper construction of contracts. He has a track record of success in obtaining antisuit relief and other interlocutory applications in the High Court.
Experience:
– LMAA arbitration concerning a false positive Covid-19 antibody test result and the application of the Charterparty Infectious Diseases clause.
– LMAA arbitration concerning cases of suspected Monkeypox infection amongst the crew and the application of the Charterparty Infectious Diseases clause and other offhire clauses
– High Court proceedings concerning the grounding of a bulk carrier in the river Parana
– Obtained judgment for USD 6 million for clients following a Commercial Court trial relating to the execution of a settlement agreement
– Successfully overturned a claim brought against Owners for damage to a cargo of DDGS in the Chinese Supreme Court
– Obtained a London Arbitration Award for clients for the supply of unfit for purpose and off-specification bunkers.
– 100% success rate in obtaining antisuit relief in the High Court
– Numerous successful London Arbitration Awards relating to speed and consumption disputes.
Prior to joining Waterson Hicks in 2017 Edward worked at the International Maritime Organisation as an internal oversight and ethics adviser in the Office of the Secretary-General between 2014 and 2017. He was called to the Bar in 2012 and has a Master of Laws degree in (LLM) obtained in 2014.
Outside work, Edward is a competitive yachtsman with over 20 years’ yacht racing experience. He holds an RYA Yacht Master/Coastal Skipper certificate and an ISAF Offshore Safety/Sea Survival certificate. He is a member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club and Royal Thames Yacht Club.
Stuart Parkin
Admiralty Manager/ Consultant
“first rate technical skills, an excellent technical/marine background” (The Legal 500)
Stuart Parkin has, since 1975, gained wide-ranging experience of the maritime industry. He spent 8 years as a seagoing deck officer with BP Shipping followed by 3 years ashore operating chartered tonnage for a major oil trading house before taking up employment with the predecessor firm of Waterson Hicks in 1985 and has worked in the profession continuously since that time.
Since entering the legal profession he has been engaged primarily in investigating and dealing with total losses, collisions, strandings, salvage, cargo claims, pumping disputes and speed and consumption performance disputes.
Stuart has expertise in speed and consumption disputes. He has developed proprietary software, which assists him in providing a successful innovative and distinct service.
He has published a number of articles and made presentations on various legal and maritime topics.
His interests include model building, photography and walking.
Sofia Xylouri
Senior Associate Solicitor
“A Standout solicitor” (The Legal 500)
Sofia has a broad practice including advising on charterparty and bill of lading disputes, shareholder disputes, sale and purchase disputes, unsafe port and cargo claims and on sanctions.
Sofia has extensive experience and handles litigation before the High Court, Admiralty Court, the Court of Appeal and Arbitration Tribunals. She also assists in coordinating litigation in numerous other jurisdictions around the world, more recently in Singapore, UAE, China and Greece.
She holds a law degree and a LLM in Maritime Law with Distinction, both from City University of London. During her LLM Sofia was awarded the City Law School Prize for Excellence in Marine Insurance for best performance in her year. She also obtained a Distinction in the LPC at BPP University. She is currently working towards dual qualification as a lawyer in Greece.
Sofia speaks native Greek and fluent English, has a working knowledge of French and has studied Mandarin Chinese.
Her interests include tennis, skiing and volunteer work.
Tom Hughes
Senior Associate Solicitor
Tom is a senior associate solicitor at the firm’s London Office having completed a training contract at Waterson Hicks. Tom was admitted as a solicitor in June 2024.
Tom handles litigation before the Commercial and Admiralty Courts in London and before London Arbitration Tribunals and assists with all of the firm’s practice areas.
Tom graduated from the University of Southampton with a first-class honours degree in maritime law and was awarded a number of prizes including for best performance in his year for contract law, land law and legal skills.
Before this, he held a number of different roles in the maritime industry, initially as a sailing instructor and then as master aboard larger privately owned sailing yachts. More recently, Tom worked at sea aboard commercial ships and in a role in Vessel Traffic Services, managing the commercial shipping traffic in the Humber Estuary. Tom holds a certificate of competence as master on commercial vessels up to 200gt and as officer of the watch on ships of unlimited size. He also holds a Yachtmaster Offshore licence.
Tom is a keen cyclist and sailor.
Inigo Hunnable
Paralegal
Inigo took a first-class BA in History from the University of Oxford (Hertford College), winning the University’s Joan Thirsk Prize and a College Prize for his achievement in the Final Honour Schools. He completed the Graduate Diploma in Law with Distinction in 2024 and intends to begin the Bar Course in September 2026. Before joining Waterson Hicks, he interned at a legal charity and continues to volunteer as an advocate with the Free Representation Unit.
His interests outside the law include art, architecture, film, and cooking.
Robert Green
Accounts & Office manager
Robert is an experienced legal accounts manager having worked within legal finance for over 20 years, previously for International, boutique and regional practices.
He is responsible for the financial control and office management of the firm.
Outside of work, Robert enjoys running, cycling, and spending time with his family and friends.