Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) is pleased to announce that it has enhanced its Greek law maritime disputes practice with the hire of new Athens Partner George Iatridis, who will be joining the firm in the New Year. Prior to joining WFW, George led the Greek law Dispute Resolution team at Ince & Co in Piraeus.
With a career spanning 29 years, George has built a reputation as one of Greece’s most distinguished maritime litigators, regularly advising the full spectrum of shipping industry participants, including leading Greek and international ship owning groups, P&I clubs, banks and insurers and reinsurers. He is especially well known for his expertise advising on cargo and charterparty claims, insurance and reinsurance disputes, litigation arising from accidents at sea, enforcements and foreclosures, and marine pollution and casualty cases. George also has considerable experience advising on disputes arising from ship sale and purchase agreements and shipbuilding contracts, as well as in employment, aviation, administrative and commercial and civil litigation matters.
His stellar reputation is recognised by leading legal directories Legal 500 EMEA and Chambers Europe, with the former listing him as the only individual in its “Hall of Fame” for Shipping Litigation in Greece and the latter noting his clients’ regard for his “vast knowledge of Greek maritime law”.
George’s appointment highlights WFW’s strategic commitment to strengthening its maritime disputes practice in key jurisdictions worldwide and follows on from the hire of fellow former Ince & Co Piraeus Partners Antonis Lagadianos and Evangelos Catsambas, who joined WFW Athens on 3 December 2018.
Partner and WFW Athens Head George Paleokrassas said: “I’m delighted to welcome George to WFW. With his vast experience, we can now offer our clients a Greek law maritime disputes capability of the highest calibre. Combined with our new English law capabilities in the same arena courtesy of Antonis and Evangelos, WFW now clearly ranks among the leading law firms in Greece for contentious maritime expertise”.
Firm Managing Partner Chris Lowe added: “To have such a talented Partner as George join us is testament both to WFW’s first rate reputation in the maritime sector and of our commitment to investing in excellence across all service lines within our core sectors of Transport and Energy”.
George commented: “I’m excited to be joining a firm with such a world class reputation for excellence in the maritime sphere as WFW, which represents an ideal platform for me to help grow my practice and better serve my clients’ needs. I look forward to working closely with colleagues both old and new across the firm’s global Maritime group”.