By Ravi P. Jawani

It is a common notion among friends, clients and the industry to have an undermined concept for the lawyers in general - hence plethora of lawyer jokes, or urban myth(s) as the one that “Lawyers bring out the worst in people, throw up a defense mechanism, and usually throw up barriers to coming to a (less expensive) resolution”. William Shakespeare had a very dramatic statement “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”. My personal favourite quote is the most hilarious and misunderstood statement made by Mario Puzo, known for his novel, The Godfather, “A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns”, which has indeed created a customary view of the people at large.

However, if carefully looked into the details of the statements, one might think of the ratio behind such thoughts and would then analyse that a lawyer will never fail to invoice with detailed time narratives even for a meagre dispute. Today, the industry has a rather different approach compared to antediluvian thoughts and in order to explain the importance of the Lawyer on a day to day basis and how it could affect the industry, there is no better example the example that the shipping industry.

Shipping is an industry where it is a common feature to have an incident occurred in one country where none of the parties who have interest in the actual vessel belong to. A Greek owned vessel for example may be chartered by a Singaporean company to carry a cargo of coal from Hay Point to be delivered partly in Lagos and partly in Bulgaria. The route taken by the vessel will most likely be from Southern Australia via the Indian Ocean heading towards South Africa and then to Lagos and then via the Mediterranean sea to Bulgaria. During the journey, the vessel, depending on her seize, speed and amount of cargo, will further call for bunkering port(s), likely Cape Town and Gibraltar.

However, as there are so many different countries and nationalities involved in such journey, the question to be answered is which laws will solve dispute in case of an incident. The vessel will be insured under Hull and Machinery (H&M) policy from the local insurance company of the owner and will be having a London P&I cover which will cover the 1/4th liability not covered by H&M. The cargo owners will instead have their own set of insurance covers from their respective local jurisdiction and the laws of the countries where the vessel will be calling will also play a part.  

In case of a collision in Cape Town with the jetty at the time of bunkering, general average will be declared and salvors will be appointed to rescue the vessel and her cargo. All the concerned parties will then appoint their respective lawyers in order to protect their interest and at the same time the port authorities will immediately approach the local court to levy an arrest on the salved vessel for the damage done to the jetty. The salvors will in turn approach the same court to have their maritime lien on the vessel and the cargo enforced. The insurance company will instead instruct their lawyers to study the survey report drafted by their surveyors to figure out a way to save liability and pay nothing for damages. The cargo owners will as well appoint their lawyers, this time instructing them to find a way to challenge the salvage fund as demanded by the salvors. Eventually, under the subrogation right, the insurance company will require their lawyers to sue to other side for default, or whoever else they can to recover their money.

In a word, lawyers everywhere and at every stage!

Therefore, the idea of having a lawyer on board since inception of any incident, or even before an incident happens, is to understand the legalities involved as per the local laws of a particular country, laws that can only be understood, explained and interpreted by lawyers.

Today, the services of lawyers are not only used for litigation as explained in the above example but are widely used since the inception of any new contract. In the same example, the owner of the vessel had most likely used the services of their lawyers to review the finance documents drafted by their bankers’ lawyers, who instructed to safeguard the bank’s investment in the vessel. Both the owner and the charterer, if reputed businessmen, had previously appointed their respective lawyers in order to draft a charterparty that suited the interest of both parties. The traders’ lawyers as well had been instructed, to review the contract between the shipper and the consignee in order to safeguard their respective principals’ interest.

Hence the conventional role of lawyers has changed from the medieval era where only at the time of dispute claimants and/or defendants reluctantly rushed to knock the doors of their lawyers. Today, the role of the lawyer is practically required in every field and industry at every stage, and moreover, this generation has seen a variety of change in the legal profession.

It seems in practice lawyers are a necessity. Interestingly, Professor Susskind in one of his articles have hilariously pointed out that lawyers do not consider themselves any longer as lawyers: litigators see themselves as project managers rather than provider of legal advice; corporate lawyers consider themselves to be deal-makers and negotiators much more than legal draftsmen; capital market lawyers suggest they are transaction managers rather than gurus of finance law; in-house lawyers maintain they are risk managers more than legal counselors; banking lawyers assert their clients come to them not for legal advice but for their market knowledge; and high street solicitors insist that they rarely undertake legal research!

Long live lawyers, what world would be without them?!