Our People
Meet our team of solicitors, barristers and maritime law experts.
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Prior to joining Sea Green, Ted was a partner for 13 years at the law firm Ince & Co, having started there as a trainee solicitor in 1994. His practice has always focussed on commodity trading and shipping.
Described in Legal 500 as: “SENSIBLE, COST-EFFECTIVE AND COMMERCIAL”
Between 2001-2003 he worked for Ausship P&I in Sydney Australia and in 2005 he spent 6 months with Gard’s FD&D team in London.
Ted helps his clients to draft clear and concise contracts, in particular sale contracts, charterparties and COAs. When problems occur, he helps his clients to resolve them.
In addition to trade and shipping, he also deals with matters related to offshore energy, plus a wide range of commercial disputes such as cyber crime, civil fraud, insurance, construction, joint ventures and guarantees.
John Bignall
Barrister
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John has practised as a barrister at renowned shipping set 7 King’s Bench Walk since 1997. He has appeared as an advocate in many London arbitrations, the Commercial Court, the Court of Appeal and in Courts outside of the UK. He practises commercial law and specialises in shipping, commodities and insurance/reinsurance.
He is described in the Legal 500 in the following terms:
“Detail orientated, technically strong and brings a real analytical focus. Very bright. Clear, concise advice. Reliable response times. Commercially savvy.”
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Margot is predominantly a dispute resolution lawyer with her practice focusing on energy and shipping disputes. She trained at Ince & Co and qualified as a solicitor in their London energy and infrastructure group, working primarily on drilling disputes but also regularly handling charterparty cases and cargo claims. She has acted for clients in the English High Court and in London arbitration proceedings (LMAA, LCIA and ad hoc) and over the last 3 years she has gained substantial experience working as a consultant on general corporate and commercial matters.Having lived for extensive periods in Ethiopia and Lebanon, she has a good understanding of the challenges faced by businesses operating in different parts of the world and of the legal frameworks in these places. Margot was born in France and is fluent in French.
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Gillian graduated from Cambridge University with a first class degree in Natural Sciences, and holds diplomas in law from Nottingham Law School and Oxford University. She trained at Bristows, qualifying into the IP litigation department, working on several high-profile, high-value, technically complex and multi-jurisdictional disputes.
Gillian also has considerable experience in-house, working on secondment at a market-leading pharmaceutical company and a world-renowned consumer product brand. After having three children, Gillian advised on disputes for the Government Legal Department and then, following a five year career break (and a fourth child), joined Sea Green Law as a consultant in 2022.
Judy Goncalves-Miranda
Trainee Solicitor
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Judy joined Sea Green as a Trainee Solicitor in 2024, having been awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Legal Practice at the University of Law with Commendation, and the Graduate Diploma in Law at BPP University. Prior to joining Sea Green, she worked at a City law firm for 11 years, managing a number of client services teams across the United Kingdom.
She is a keen environmentalist as well as a diversity and inclusion advocate.
Judy was born in Poland and is fluent in Polish. Having lived in Italy she speaks fluent Italian and she also speaks Portuguese.
Sagun Sudhir
Associate
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Sagun joined Sea Green as a consultant in 2018, having just graduated top of his year at the Swansea University LLM in International Maritime Law. Prior to joining Sea Green Law, he did work experience placements at leading maritime law firms in London, Singapore and India. This included Bose & Mitra & Co. in Mumbai where he regularly represented clients in Court. He was involved in several contentious as well as non-contentious matters pertaining to ship arrests, charterparty disputes, cargo claims, oil pollution liabilities, insolvency and enforcement of LMAA awards. Sagun has also gained work experience in Singapore with Ang & Partners within their Shipping, Logistics & International Trade team and with the law firm Ince & Co in London.At Swansea University, Sagun’s dissertation on the Gencon charter was awarded The Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law prize and he also won the prizes for best performing student and the prize for Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air.Sagun is an Indian qualified lawyer. He is fluent in English, Hindi, Bengali and Tamil. His hobbies include football and chess.
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Yolanda is an international trade and energy disputes specialist who has acted for clients in ICC, LCIA, and ICSID arbitrations, as well as in disputes before the English High Court. Yolanda advises on a wide range of contentious matters, including disputes relating to contractual issues, investment protection, fraud, and sanctions. She has primarily acted for clients in the energy, commodities and mining sectors, as well as acting for and against Governments.
Yolanda trained at Clyde & Co, where she was an Associate Solicitor in the Trade & Energy Disputes team, having also worked in their Marine, Dubai, Commercial litigation, and Trade & Energy Finance departments.
After seven years at Clyde & Co, Yolanda moved to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, where she spent three years on policy work, primarily focusing on Asia-Pacific, CPD/CPACC, and sanctions issues, before taking a career break for family and a stint as an author of young adult fiction. Previously Yolanda has also spent time as a member of Holman Fenwick Willan’s reinsurance litigation group, as a local Councillor in the Otford Planning team, and in the Territorial Army while at Cambridge University.
Yolanda joined Sea Green Law in 2024.
Anna Nohre
Paralegal
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Anna graduated from Cardiff University in 2017 with a degree in Marine Science. A keen environmentalist, she achieved a first in her MSc at Kings College London in Freshwater Science and Governance.
She works on various cases in a support capacity, organising documents and exhibits, preparing chronologies, filing documents with the court and drafting correspondence.
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Jenny has a degree in Business Management and has over 15 years of experience in managing different office environments.
Harry Kooimans
Paralegal
John Fairclough
Master Mariner
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John Fairclough is a master mariner with an honours degree in Nautical Studies. He trained at HMS Conway and went to sea as cadet with the British and Commonwealth Shipping Company in 1964. He sailed on general cargo, refrigerated, tanker and passenger ships in ranks up to chief officer. He remained with that fine company until 1975. He worked as a claims executive for the Steamship Mutual P&I club between 1976 and 1978 before returning briefly to sea. He joined Brookes Bell & Co., the renowned firm of marine surveyors in Liverpool, in 1980. He soon became a partner and was responsible for opening the firm’s London office in 1983. He worked from Brookes Bell’s office in Hong Kong in 1987 before returning to London. He remained with Brookes Bell until 2005, when he established JF Marine Limited, through which he continued to work as a surveyor and consultant. He has been engaged on a variety of survey and other work, including damages to cargoes, stowage and securing, condition surveys, collisions, groundings, stability investigations, wreck removals and chemical disposal including deep water operations.