The former head of Ince & Co's Piraeus office has joined law firm Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) to set up a maritime dispute resolution department at its Athens office.
In his 26 years at Ince, Antonis Lagadianos has handled multimillion-dollar cases on behalf of several major Greek shipowners such as Petros Pappas, Andreas Hadjiyiannis and John Coustas.
He moves in tandem with Evangelos Catsambas, who has worked for more than 20 years at Ince and Holman Fenwick Willan, advising numerous Greek shipowners, protection and indemnity clubs and hull and machinery underwriters.
Lagadianos and Catsambas began exploratory talks to join WFW as early as in the summer of 2017 — well before a restructuring at Ince & Co that ultimately led to the law firm’s acquisition by Gordon Dadds.
Their move is a key part in WFW’s strategy to expand its maritime legal service capabilities across the world. The drive starts in Athens by boosting WFW's English and Greek law maritime dispute team.
Mutual appreciation
Lagadianos has known George Paleokrassas, head of WFW’s Athens office, for years. Their mutual professional appreciation and friendship has played a big role in their decision to work together, the two men told TradeWinds.
“This is a new venture for us and we went very cautiously and diligently about choosing the people to run it,” Paleokrassas said.
“It’s basically about being able to tell clients that we can cover all their needs across the maritime spectrum.”
Lagadianos said his new position allows him and Catsambas to build on their existing clientele and expand it.
“Clients we have worked for at Ince are also WFW clients, so they’re very positive about our move here. It’s like a one-stop shop for them now,” he told TradeWinds.
Looking ahead, Lagadianos expects disputes related to environmental regulation and scrubbers to become more prominent in the near future.
“Clients are already asking for advice on how to word contracts to cover themselves in eventual fuel disputes,” he said. “Our job changes every day, it’s the market that determines what kinds of issues we’ll have to deal with.”
