Sarah Martin

Litigation

Sarah practises in all areas of commercial law, with a particular emphasis on insurance and shipping, and has appeared as sole counsel in the Commercial Court, the former Mercantile Court, the Companies Court and the County Court. The majority of her cases include a jurisdictional and/or foreign law dimension, so she has a detailed understanding of conflicts of law issues, and she is accustomed to working closely with teams of foreign lawyers, most recently in Venezuela, Bulgaria, Greece and the U.S.

In the insurance sphere, Sarah has extensive experience of coverage disputes involving questions of construction of insurance and reinsurance contracts, and she has established a significant reputation in total loss claims arising from large-scale marine casualties, including vessel collisions, detentions and appropriation. In recent years, Sarah has also built a substantial practice in very high value Bermuda Form arbitrations arising from U.S. mass tort litigation, frequently involving complex issues relating to proof of the insured’s underlying liability to third party claimants.

Sarah has a wide-ranging shipping practice, and her expertise extends across a broad range of sectors, including charterparties, carriage of goods, commodities, shipbuilding, and matters falling within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Court. She has acted in a large number of LMAA arbitrations, and is also experienced in obtaining urgent injunctive relief from the Commercial Court in support of ongoing arbitrations, including worldwide freezing injunctions and anti-suit injunctions.

Friends’ School, Hobart, Australia; University of Melbourne (BA/LLB (Hons), First Class); Magdalen College, Oxford (BCL, Distinction; MPhil).