Richard Southern specialises in commercial litigation and arbitration, including shipping, energy, commodities and international trade, as well as professional negligence, marine and non-marine insurance, and reinsurance.

As a silk, Richard’s work has included a wide range of litigation and arbitration. Recently Richard has been involved in several significant cases including a lengthy Commercial Court fraud trial (now under appeal), a series of arbitrations arising out of unperformed contracts of affreightments, several oil trading disputes both in court and in arbitration, an international arbitration concerning a drillship, shipbuilding and purchase disputes, and professional negligence claims against insurance brokers. He is ranked by Chambers UK 2016 as a leading silk in Shipping and Commodities (“He is extremely good. He is very thorough, always delivers on time and has a very good instinct for where a case is going to go”) and by the legal 500 as a leading silk in commodities, energy, insurance and reinsurance, and shipping (“an excellent advocate who picks the right points”). His work is principally advocacy and advisory although he also accepts appointments as an arbitrator and as an independent expert.