Date of Call: 2007
General Information
2003-2006:
BA (Cantab) Law: 1st Class.
Norton Rose Prize Commercial Law Prize for Top First in Commercial Law.
Clifford Chance European Union Law Prize for Top First in European Union Law.
Trinity College Senior Scholar.
Trinity College Lizette Bentwich Prize 2005, 2006.
Trinity College Tripos Prize 2006.
2006 – 2007:
Bar Vocational Course, Inns of Court School of Law: Outstanding.
Marchant and Hardwick Scholar of The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn.
Whittaker Scholarship from Trinity College for the Bar Vocational Course.
Buchanan Prize for performance on the Bar Vocational Course.
Practice
Sushma practices in all areas of commercial law including: insurance and reinsurance, shipping, international trade, sale of goods, banking, professional negligence and private international law.
Sushma has appeared in the High Court and the County Court.
Selected Cases and Experience
Insurance & Reinsurance
• Instructed to as junior counsel in a three-week business interruption arbitration involving the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the New Orleans luxury hotel industry.
• Instructed to appear as junior counsel in a SIAC arbitration concerning disputes arising out of the provision of insurance to government employees.
• Instructed to appear as counsel representing insurers in a claim against Jehns Lehmann for premium due under a contingency insurance policy.
• Advising in respect of an insurance coverage dispute arising out of the theft of a commercial vehicle.
• Advising and drafting pleadings in respect of other insurance disputes.
Shipping & Transport
• Matrix Europe Limited (In Liquidation) v Uniserve Northern Limited [2009] EWHC 919 (Comm)
Instructed as junior counsel for the Claimant in respect of a bailment dispute involving the theft of Bluetooth adaptors from a warehouse.
• Instructed to appear as junior counsel in a multi-party arbitration concerning the entitlement of owners to withdraw from and/or terminate various charterparties as well as the entitlement of charterers to make various off-hire deductions.
• Instructed to appear as junior counsel in a SIAC arbitration concerning disputes arising out of the provision of insurance to government employees.
• Instructed as junior counsel in two separate arbitrations involving claims for breach of memorandums of agreement for the sale of second-hand vessels on the Norwegian Saleform.
• Instructed to appear as counsel representing insurers in a claim against Jens Lehmann for premium due under a contingency insurance policy.
• Instructed to appear in a fast track trial involving issues of bailment, professional negligence and breach of contract.
• Advising buyers in a property dispute concerning the failure to complete under a contract of sale incorporating the Common Auction Conditions.
• Instructed on behalf of a foreign public insurance company in a negligence dispute involving issues of private international law.
• Drafting defence submissions to a claim for demurrage in arbitration proceedings in the LMAA small claims procedure.
• Advising in respect of an insurance coverage dispute arising out of the theft of a commercial vehicle.
• Advising and drafting defence submissions in an arbitration concerning a claim for freight allegedly due under a charterparty, the existence of which was disputed by charterers.
• Advising in relation to other charter party, insurance and contractual disputes.
Professional Negligence
• Instructed to appear in a fast track trial concerning the liability of an engineer for the sinking of a boat left on a slipway after the engineer had carried out repairs to the boat’s engine. The trial involved issues of professional negligence, breach of contract and bailment.
• Advising buyers of land and drafting pleadings in a claim brought by the buyers against their former solicitors who acted for them in conjunction with the completion of the contract of sale.
Sale of Land
• Advising buyers, particularly on the measure of damages, in a property dispute concerning their failure to complete under a contract of sale incorporating the Common Auction Conditions.
Jurisdiction & Conflict of Laws
• Instructed on behalf of a foreign public insurance company in a negligence dispute involving issues of private international law.
Experience
During pupillage, Sushma assisted leading and junior counsel in advising, settling pleadings and preparing for hearings, both interlocutory and final. Cases in which she was involved included in particular insurance, reinsurance, shipping, commercial contract and negligence disputes.
