Haris Zografakis > Stephenson Harwood > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Stephenson Harwood
1 FINSBURY CIRCUS
LONDON
EC2M 7SH
England

Work Department

Marine and international trade

Position

Haris heads the firm’s commodities practice and over a period of 30 years has dealt with all aspects of shipping and international maritime trade. He has acted for clients ranging from mining companies and oil majors to shipowners and their insurers, state-owned oil companies, independent trading houses, chemical companies, banks and refineries from around the world. He is also a leading expert in the contractual aspects of maritime decarbonisation, acting for NGOs, organisations and companies from across the spectrum of the maritime supply chain.

Haris started his career in the City of London in 1994. Dispute resolution represents a large part of his practice and he has acted in hundreds of arbitrations, High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and multi-jurisdictional cases ranging from modest demurrage claims to mine off-take and oil and gas disputes worth hundreds of millions. His reported Court cases include the Johnny K, Trafigura v Kookmin Bankthe Sabrewingthe Northgatethe Port RusselU&M v Konkola Copper Mines, CH Offshore v PDVSA Petroleo and Petrosaudi Oil Services v Novo Banco et al. While he has been described as a “solid and tenacious litigator” (Chambers UK 2007) and “a supreme tactician” (Chambers UK 2020), he is also involved in non-contentious work, structuring transactions, drafting terms and advising clients on decarbonisation strategy.

He is member of the editorial board of Shipping and Transport Law Journal, member of the Institute of maritime law of the University of Southampton and has served on the Council of the London Shipping Law Centre. He is chair of the International Working Group on maritime decarbonisation of Comite Maritime International. He has published and lectured extensively worldwide, including at COP, for BIMCO and the IMO.

Haris heads the firm’s commodities practice, which has repeatedly been recognised as a First Tier team by The Legal 500. The same directory described him as “leading a true team, perfectly organised, providing excellent legal and commercial advice”. He has also been inducted to the 2018 Legal 500 Hall of fame as a result of his continued recognition by the directory.

Lawyer Rankings

London > Dispute resolution > Commodities disputes

(Leading individuals)

Haris ZografakisStephenson Harwood

Stephenson Harwood has a major presence in the energy, metals and minerals sectors, in which it advises major trading houses, oil majors and refining companies, and mining groups. More recently, the firm has become more active in soft commodities, and it counts traders, food producers and other multi-national corporates among its clients. ‘Service from the firm is really outstanding: quick response, deep knowledge of the market and great authority in the legal issues involved‘, remark clients. Haris Zografakis, who has vast experience in hard, soft and energy commodities, leads the practice. The ‘very focused and efficientEmma Skakle has a market-leading reputation in agricultural commodities. Peter Bennett is ‘always available, reliable and effective, and conducts all the trial phases with precision and appropriateness‘. Jonathan Spearing, who is highly regarded for commodity financing fraud cases, ‘provides concise and pragmatic legal advice‘.