UK law firm HFW is boosting its shipping practice with the promotion of three female lawyers.
The maritime specialist said Claire Womersley will become a partner on 1 April, with Caroline Murphy and Katherine Noble becoming legal directors.
Womersley covers all aspects of crisis response and ensuing litigation arising from marine casualties.
"Claire has supported clients with large scale casualty management for a number of the firm's high profile cases, particularly those involving mass fatalities and natural disasters," HWF said.
She is a master mariner, having spent nine years at sea on large passenger vessels and ro-ro freight ferries before joining HFW.
Murphy deals with a wide range of dry shipping disputes, involving charter parties and bills of lading, as well as shipbuilding disputes. She also acts on contractual disputes arising out of sale and purchase contracts involving oil.
Noble is a specialist in asset finance with a particular emphasis on shipping.
She acts for financial institutions, export credit agencies and owners on shipping and offshore loans, and her work also covers yacht financing, ship sale and purchase, shipbuilding contracts, charter parties, ship registration and other commercial shipping matters.
HFW said the promotions continue a period of "sustained growth" for its global shipping practice, following its launch in Monaco and the addition of two experts in Singapore: former shipbroker Chris Jones and dry shipping expert Christopher Metcalf.
Metcalf joined last September from Clyde & Co.
His practice spans a wide range of contentious and non-contentious matters in the shipping, offshore and oil and gas sectors, including charter party, COA, bills of lading and other commercial agreements.
HFW also added ship finance partner Siri Wennevik in Singapore in 2018, and relocated admiralty and crisis management partner Toby Stephens and ship finance partner John Forrester from London to Singapore in 2017.
The company has more than 200 shipping lawyers and master mariners across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
The trio were given new roles as part of its annual promotions round.
Richard Crump, global senior partner at HFW, said: "We continue to expand and strengthen our business across our international network and our global industry groups, and that all starts with investment in our people.
"Our newest partners and legal directors have already made significant contributions to the growth and success of the firm, and I would like to congratulate them on their well-deserved promotions."
Jeremy Shebson, managing partner, added: "Gender equality is a key priority for us as a business, and we are committed to improving female representation at all levels of the firm."
