7 King's Bench Walk

Litigation.

Sushma Ananda is a commercial barrister who has been described in the directories as “very bright”, “a feared opponent” and “great on her feet”. Her practice encompasses commercial law generally, with a particular emphasis on insurance and reinsurance, international arbitration, professional negligence, shipping and international trade.

She won Insurance Junior of the Year in the 2023 Chambers & Partners UK Bar Awards and is ranked as a leading junior in the directories in Insurance & Reinsurance, International Arbitration, Shipping and Commodities. In October 2010 Sushma was cited by Legal Week as one of the “Stars at the Bar”. Sushma was also called to the Singapore Bar in February 2015.

Sushma has been instructed in a wide variety of commercial disputes both as sole counsel and as a junior (including to several silks out of Chambers). Sushma has appeared in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, Commercial Court, county courts and in many international arbitrations (including LMAA, LCIA, ICC, ARIAS, SIAC and Bermuda Form arbitrations). She has undertaken advocacy on her own in many of these forums, including successfully appearing against counsel significantly more senior than her. Sushma also often works as part of a wider counsel team in complex commercial disputes leading to lengthy trials.

Sushma’s highlighted cases and current instructions include:

• Appearing unled, against a silk, in the Circuit Commercial Court in a reinsurance ‘follow the settlements’ dispute: Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Limited and others v Equitas Insurance Limited (2025).
• Successfully appearing unled, against a Singaporean Senior Counsel, in a COVID-19 business interruption arbitration seated in Singapore (2025) concerned with the impact of the pandemic on international tourism.
• Appearing as junior counsel in the liability phase of an insurance arbitration concerned with defective wood products, and continuing to appear unled in the quantum phase, against two silks.
• Junior counsel for insurers in Pizza Express Group Ltd v Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe SE [2023] EWHC 1269 (Comm), procuring a favourable outcome on the limits of liability applicable to Pizza Express’s claim.
• Junior counsel for multiple insurers involved in the COVID-19 business interruption ‘at the premises’ litigation, both in the Commercial Court and in the Court of Appeal: London International Exhibition Centre Plc and others v RSA Plc and others [2023] EWHC 1481 (Comm); [2024] EWCA Civ 1026.
• Successful appearing as junior counsel for insurers in the important COVID-19 business interruption case of Stonegate Pub Company v MS Amlin and others [2022] EWHC 2548 (Comm) dealing with issues of aggregation and post-policy period causation.
• Junior counsel in the seminal 2020 COVID-19 business interruption test case (at first instance and in the Supreme Court [2020] EWHC 2448 (Comm); [2021] UKSC 1) brought by the FCA against eight insurers, including Ecclesiastical Insurance Office plc and MS Amlin Underwriting Ltd (Sushma’s clients).
• Appearing in the Court of Appeal as junior counsel in Ferster v Ferster [2016] EWCA Civ 717, a case concerned with the unambiguous impropriety exception to without prejudice privilege.
• Junior counsel in Involnert Management v Aprilgrange Limited [2015] EWHC 2834 (Comm), a multi-million euro professional negligence claim in the Commercial Court concerned with the insurance of a super yacht.

Sushma also accepts arbitration appointments. She has acted as an arbitrator appointed by the LCIA Court in several arbitrations. She is also on the panel of arbitrators for the Lloyd’s Arbitration Scheme, Tiers 1 and 2.

She is also a Non-Executive Director of the Bar Mutual.

Called 2007, Lincoln’s Inn (Marchant and Hardwick scholar); tenant since 2008.

Malay; Kannada (spoken).

COMBAR; LMAA; LCIA; LCLCBA

Anglo-Chinese Junior College, Singapore; Trinity College, Cambridge (2006 BA First Class); Inns of Court School of Law (2007 BVC).