Name
Ravi Aswani

Ravi Aswani has a broad commercial practice including shipping and international trade, insurance and re-insurance and banking and finance, as well as general commercial work.

Ravi was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2000.  Before coming to Stone Chambers, he spent six months at the Court of Appeal working as a judicial assistant.  Between September 2001 and December 2001 he was judicial assistant to Sir Andrew Morritt V-C, and between January 2002 and April 2002 he was judicial assistant to Lord Phillips MR.

SIGNIFICANT CASES

Triton Navigation Ltd v Vitol SA (The Nikmary) [2003] EWCA Civ 1715, [2004] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 55, [2004] 1 All ER (Comm) 698 - Appeal to Court of Appeal on point concerning timing of charterer’s obligation to provide / load cargo (led by Timothy Hill);

LG Korbetis v Transgrain Shipping BV [2005] EWHC 1345 (Comm) – application of postal rule to misdirected letters of acceptance;

Bernuth Lines Ltd v High Seas Shipping Ltd (The Eastern Navigator) [2005] EWHC 3020 (Comm), [2006] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 537, [2006] 1 All ER (Comm) 359, [2006] 1 CLC 403 – whether arbitration can validly be commenced by email sent to general information email address;

Exfin Shipping (India) Ltd Mumbai v Tolani Shipping Co Ltd Mumbai [2006] EWHC 1090 (Comm), [2006] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 389 [2006] 2 All ER (Comm) 938 – whether an admitted but unpaid liability constitutes a “dispute” within the meaning of an arbitration clause;

BTC Bulk Transport Corporation v Glencore International AG [2006] EWHC 1957 (Comm) – whether alleged error of law in award where application under s69 Arbitration Act 1996 not possible for want of reasoned award could be relevant to irregularity for purposes of s68 Arbitration Act 1996 application;

PRACTICE AREAS

General Commercial and Chancery

1. drafting and advising on contracts and contract terms and conditions and advising on related procedural matters
2. debt recovery and judgment / award enforcement
3. dispute resolution
4. directors’ disqualification proceedings

Insurance and Reinsurance

1. construction of policies
2. disputes as to coverage and non-disclosure
3. protection and indemnity policy / marine insurance advice

Banking, Finance and Property

1. construction of bills of exchange, letters of credit, performance bonds and guarantees
2. actions between lending institutions and their customers relating primarily to mortgages, loans and consumer credit transactions; involvement in enforcement proceedings in Court as well as underlying claims

Shipping and International Trade

1. “wet” shipping, in particular collisions, groundings and incidents requiring salvage or towage assistance and consequent claims by various interested parties
1. Extensive experience of complex salvage and wreck removal cases, having been variously led in LOF and Wreckhire arbitrations by John Reeder QC, Vasanti Selvaratnam QC and Elizabeth Blackburn QC.  Instructed in relation to a number of significant casualties in recent years including “Janra”, “Carl Metz”, “Jambo”, “Koutalianos”, “Cristoforo Colombo” and “Pimesa”.
2. Sole counsel in a number of LMAA arbitrations including: representing state owned shipyard defending multi-million dollar claim for damages arising out of alleged breaches of ship building contract; representing shipowners in reference involving carriage of steel coils.
2.  “dry” shipping, primarily disputes as to liability for short, late and unsound delivery of cargo, and problems relating to shipping vessel and documentation
1. Extensive experience of claims proceeding under LMAA terms both as sole and junior counsel
2. Arbitration applications in the Commercial Court
3. domestic and international disputes arising out of contracts for the sale and / or transport of goods (by air, road and rail as well as by sea), extensive experience of advising under BIFA, CMR and RHA terms, as well as underlying contracts of insurance
4. experience of personal injury claims arising out of accidents on vessels (both at sea and moored) and in harbours and other work sites (including advising under Hong Kong law in relation to accidents occurring in Hong Kong)

PUBLICATIONS

“Transactions in Fraud of Creditors: The Foreign Element” [2005] 1 International Corporate Rescue 29 (co-authored with Steven Gee QC)

“Non disclosure in insurance law, a more principled approach” (2006) 64 Amicus Curiae 10

LECTURES

Lectures delivered to both legal and trade audiences (in this country and abroad) on both dispute resolution and commercial law topics

LANGUAGES 

Gujarati (fluent)

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

Bar Pro Bono Unit
Bentham Club
British Maritime Law Association
College of Arbitrators for the Foreign Direct Investment International Moot Competition
Commercial Bar Association
London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association

EDUCATION

AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS