William MacLachlan > HFW > London, England > Lawyer Profile
HFW Offices
8 Bishopsgate
LONDON
EC2N 4BQ
England
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William MacLachlan
Work Department
SHIPPING
Position
Partner
Career
William advises a wide variety of companies and financial institutions across the commercial shipping, cruise, ferry and yachting industries on a range of transactional shipping matters. William has particular expertise in ship design, ship building, ship repair, ship sale and purchase and ship recycling. He spent some eight months seconded to a leading European shipbuilder.
William co-heads HFW’s Travel and Leisure Team and manages the firm’s day to day relationship with CLIA and Interferry.
In addition, William is experienced in matters of physical and cyber security and advises a range of ship owners, private security companies and other industry stakeholders on the contractual, regulatory and compliance issues associated with such matters.
William speaks regularly at conferences and contributes to a range of printed media. William is also a trustee of the Mission to Seafarers, one of HFW’s global charity partners and a member of the board of advisers of the ‘She of the Sea’ campaign to encourage diversity amongst those employed at sea in the yachting industry.
Lawyer Rankings
London > Transport > Travel
(Next Generation Partners)HFW‘s regulatory and commercial practice ensures that clients ‘always feel one step ahead’. William MacLachlan has extensive expertise handling non-contentious mandates, as well as matters relating to transactional aspects of shipping, namely passenger vessels; further, he is experienced in handling an array of ship management and operation work. Claire Womersley harnesses a notable specialism in work pertaining to the cruise ship and ferry sector, handling litigation and crisis management matters therein. Womersley and MacLachlan co-head the team alongside Zohar Zik. Caroline Murphy is well-equipped to handle shipping-related disputes, including those regarding charterparties, bills of lading and shipbuilding, while Kirsten Wright specialises in advising yacht and cruise ship owners on collisions, injuries, and fatalities that have occurred at sea. Alex Sayegh is also noteworthy for his transactional shipping work, as is Gudmund Bernitz, who has a shipping finance specialism. Zik’s former co-head Elinor Dautlich departed to Hannaford Turner LLP in January 2024.
Lawyer Rankings
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Transport > Aviation
- Dispute resolution > Commodities disputes
- Crime, fraud and licensing > Fraud: white-collar crime (advice to individuals)
- Transport > Shipping
Firm Rankings
- Real estate > Construction: contentious
- Insurance > Insurance and reinsurance litigation
- Insurance > Insurance litigation: for policyholders
- Insurance > Insurance: corporate and regulatory
- Transport > Travel
- Real estate > Construction: non-contentious
- Insurance > Professional negligence
- Risk advisory > Regulatory investigations and corporate crime (advice to corporates)
- Finance > Transport finance and leasing
- Corporate and commercial > Commercial contracts
- Dispute resolution > Commercial litigation: premium
- Crime, fraud and licensing > Fraud: civil
- Corporate and commercial > M&A: Lower Mid-Market Deals, £100m-£750m
- Projects, energy and natural resources > Oil and gas
- Projects, energy and natural resources > Renewables
- Dispute resolution > International arbitration
- Corporate and commercial > EU and competition
- Finance > Corporate restructuring & insolvency