Lionel Persey KC

Lionel Persey KC is an arbitrator specialising in Shipping, Energy and International Arbitration. He was called to the Bar in 1981 and was appointed Silk in 1997. He was joint head of Quadrant Chambers between 2006-2012. He is a Deputy High Court Judge (Commercial Court and QBD) and sits as an arbitrator in shipping, energy and commercial disputes. He was ranked for many years in Band 1 for Shipping and Energy in both Chambers & Partners (UK, Global & Asia) and the Legal 500. As a junior counsel he represented the UK Government in a number of maritime matters, acting for the Royal Navy, the UK Coastguard, the Ministry of Defence and appearing before a wide range of Tribunals, including the European Court of Justice. He was subsequently appointed to chair two Merchant Shipping Act public enquiries.

Lionel has considerable experience as an arbitrator, having been appointed in over nearly 400 arbitral references, as sole arbitrator, party-appointed arbitrator and as chair. He has chaired substantial ICC, LCIA, Uncitral, LMAA, SCMA and DIAC arbitrations and has also sat as a party appointed arbitrator in AAA, HKIAC and SIAC references. He is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers & Partners in International Arbitration: Arbitrators and Legal 500 have described Lionel as “one of the best presiding arbitrators in the field.”

Lionel is known for his command of the technical issues that arise in maritime, shipbuilding, energy and construction cases. He has been involved either as counsel or arbitrator in well over 100 shipbuilding disputes. He has also acted as counsel or arbitrator in a significant number of onshore and offshore construction disputes, involving FPSOs, semi-submersible rigs, fixed platforms, TLPs and pipelines. He was the recipient of the first award for “Silk of the Year in Energy & Projects” at the Legal 500 2014 Awards and was shortlisted again for this award in 2017.

Salvage and wreck-removal have formed a large part of Lionel Persey’s maritime practice over the past 42 years. He has conducted well over 250 salvage arbitrations as counsel and, since his appointment as an LOF arbitrator in 2009, has been appointed sole arbitrator in more than 70 salvage arbitrations, covering a wide range of salvage services.