Dharmendra Nair specializes in shipping, commodities and commercial litigation. He has advised and represented various Fortune 500 companies, shipowners, charterers, cargo owners, steel manufacturers and commodity suppliers in litigation in London, India and Singapore.

Dharmendra was admitted to The Law Society of Singapore in 1998 and the Law Society of England and Wales in 2001.

Representative Experience

• Advising a number of buyers and sellers on ship sale and purchase disputes over more than US$60 million.
• Representing the owners of a vessel in respect of a constructive total loss of their vessel off the coast of Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
• Defending the owners of a vessel against an allegation that they had breached their due diligence obligation to deliver a seaworthy vessel.
• Advising cargo owner following a fire to the cargo on board the vessel.
• Representing the charterers in the loss of the M/V Adamandas, which was sunk by France’s government off Reunion Island as a result of cargo overheating on board the vessel. The claim centered on contractual liabilities including environmental claims and the incident required sensible media management.
• Advising global companies in the steel industry on liability regarding the carriage of dangerous cargo including hot briquetted iron, direct reduced iron, iron ore fines and hot coking coal.
• Advising various charterers on multiple unique issues arising in the performance of a contract of affreightment including failure to provide a valid laycan, failure to nominate a vessel, revised election of laycan dates, assessment of damages for a failure to perform, failure to load and related issues.
• Advising the charterers under a contract of affreightment regarding a hardship claim where the owners’ losses were more than US$100 million.
• Representing charterers against allegations that they had nominated the vessel to proceed to an unsafe berth and port warranty.
• Advising owners and charterers with regard to groundings off various ports and rivers including ports near Indonesia, Brazil, Venezuela, the Great Lakes and Mississippi.
• Advising the vessel owners in the oil trade in respect of their failure to meet laycan dates and their exposure to damages of more than US$8 million.
• Advising shipowners and cargo owners in respect of the arrest of their vessels in various jurisdictions including Australia, France, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and the UK.
• Counseling a shipbuilder regarding the delivery of a poor quality build where many minute cracks appeared on the deck of the vessel.
• Advising oil traders on hedging loss matters.
• Representing various parties involved in jurisdictional issues relating to forum and form of dispute in arbitration and before the High Court in London.
• Advising cargo owners of the full range of types of cargo on issues relating to carriage of cargo including loss, short landing, failure to deliver, poor quality and other matters.
• Counseling charterers in respect of the quantification of their losses under contracts of carriage.
• Advising on the sale of secondhand vessels bound for India and Bangladesh for scrap.
  Advising on charterparty and bill of lading disputes in connection with OREVOY, GENCON, NYPE, SHELLTIME, ASBATANKVOY, SHELLVOY, BPVOY, AMWELSH, SUPPLYTIME, NORWEGIAN SALE FORM and CONGENBILL contracts.