Michael specializes in all aspects of commercial law, including insurance and reinsurance, shipping and international trade, professional negligence (including underwriting agents, brokers and solicitors), conflict of laws and jurisdiction disputes, as well as more general commercial disputes.  He appears regularly in the Commercial Court, and the Chancery Division of the High Court as well as in arbitration.

He was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and Peterhouse Cambridge. He was a scholar in History at Peterhouse obtaining a Starred First for the top result in final examinations. He went on to study for an MPhil in Medieval History, and was awarded the Wood-Legh Prize for a dissertation entitled Norman Palermo: Conflict and Convivencia in the Central Mediterranean.  He also represented the University at Rugby Union and Rugby League. He obtained the Diploma in Law at City University in 1998.

Peterhouse, Cambridge, 1993-97
BA (History) 1st Class (Starred), MPhil (Medieval History), MA (Cantab)
Wood-Legh Prize, Lady Ward Scholarship in History, the Makin Foster and Herbert Butterfield Prizes
City University, 1997-98
Middle Temple, Queen Mother-Fox Scholar 1997, Queen Mother Scholar 1996

• Insurance & Reinsurance
• Shipping
• Professional Negligence
• Banking and Finance
• Energy & Natural Resources
• General Commercial Disputes

Michael has been involved in many of the major issues to concern the insurance and reinsurance markets in the last ten years; from the film the finance litigation in the first few years of the millennium to the questions of insurance and reinsurance associated with the complicated derivative transactions that have recently come under the spotlight as a consequence of the banking crisis.

He has considerable experience of questions of construction of insurance and reinsurance contracts, coverage disputes, issues of non-disclosure and misrepresentation, questions of proper law and jurisdiction, issues particular to marine insurance contracts, contribution claims among insurers, the principles and practice associated with the Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 1930 and cases involving the professional negligence of brokers and underwriting agents.

In addition Michael is increasingly involved in advising whether particular commercial activities constitute the making of insurance contracts under the FSMA, with the consequent need for registration of the commercial party with the FSA.

Selected cases:

• Michael acts for Lloyd’s syndicate 780 in a Commercial Court claim relating to the meaning of an excess clause in a facultative energy reinsurance.
• Michael Acts for Hull & Machinery insurers in claim by the insured owners arising from the loss of the vessel “FEDRA” on Gibraltar Point in October 2008.
• Acted for Japanese reinsurers defending claims brought by the members of a London-based aviation insurance pool.
• Dunlop Haywards v Barbon [2010] Lloyd’s Rep IR 149 – Acted for subsidiary companies of the Erinaceous Group Plc in a claim against their producing broker, giving rise to a third party claim against the placing broker as well as issues of rectification against the excess insurers.  The case culminated in a five-week trial in the Commercial Court where Michael was led by Alistair Schaff QC.  The case also gave rise to questions on costs relating to Bullock and Sanderson orders and the appropriate interest uplift in respect of Part 36 offers [2009] EWHC 3479 (QB).
• Acted for subsidiaries of the Erinaceous Group plc in a dispute with their professional indemnity insurers concerning issues of aggregation arising from a series of fraudulent valuations carried out by a senior surveyor and director of one of the subsidiary companies.
• Acted for a French “assistance” insurer defending claims on policies of property insurance for risks situated in Nigeria entered into by agents of the insurers in excess of their authority.
• Acted for a large French reinsurer defending claims made in arbitration by a Bermudan reinsured on the basis of gross loss underwriting on the part of the reinsured.
• Acted for Equitas in claims against Mexican and Israeli reinsurers.
• Encia Remediation v Canopius Managing [2008] Lloyd’s Rep IR 79 – Acted for the insured remediation contractor in a claim on its professional indemnity policy relating to defective piling designed by the insured.  The case gave rise to issues relating to the breadth of coverage offered by the environmental consultants Michael was led in the trial of the preliminary issue by Siobán Healy.
• Acted for the Law Society to recover from innocent partners and their professional indemnity insurers sums paid by the Solicitors’ Indemnity Fund to clients whose monies had been misappropriated by the solicitor Dixit Shah.  Michael acted initially with Julian Flaux QC and then with David Edwards QC.  The case gave rise to issues relating to s.35 of the Limitation Act 1980 reported as Law Society v Wemyss [2009] 1 WLR 2254, [2009] 1 All ER 752.
• Acted with Adam Fenton QC for Romanian insurers defending a claim under a marine insurance policy arising from the grounding of a vessel on Meroe Island off Little Nicobar Island in the Indian Ocean.
• Acted with Christopher Butcher QC for AIG Re defending claims made by Frankona on two highly-funded, sometimes called “finite”, reinsurance treaties.
• Acted with Gavin Kealey QC for Gerling, Zurich and others in a contribution/ double insurance claim against five Lloyd’s syndicates relating to litigation compromised in Indiana arising from an explosion in the largest blast furnace in the United States.
• Acted for an international pool of reinsurers in a Commercial Court claim against Hannover Re and others arising out of a series of contracts of bodily injury carve-out reinsurance in the general aviation market.
• In 2003 Michael acted for the insured with Gavin Kealey QC in an arbitration arising out of the postponement of a high-profile international golf tournament as a result of the events of September 11.
• Acted for a substantial firm of solicitors defending an economic tort and deceit claim arising out of the insurance-backed film finance transactions known as Hollywood 4, 5 and 6 underwritten by Lexington.
• HIH v Chase [2003] Lloyd’s Rep IR 203, [2003] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 61, [2003] 1 All ER (Comm)349 – Acted for the JP Morgan Chase Bank in the film finance litigation arising out of the Phoenix Slate and the three Paramount Slates.  He appeared in the Court of Appeal in July 2001 and in the House of Lords in July 2002, led by Lord Grabiner QC and Colin Edelman QC on preliminary issues in the Phoenix Slate and subsequently in the trial of the Phoenix Slate before Langley J.
• Acted for the Bank of Scotland and the National Bank of Canada in coverage disputes arising from insurance-backed film finance transactions. 
• Acted for Deutsche Rückversicherung AG in claims against fronted-for companies arising from their participation in the ICRA pools in the 1970s.

Michael has substantial experience in shipping and the international carriage of goods.  He has been involved in numerous charterparty disputes involving issues of seaworthiness, cargoworthiness, cargo management, dangerous cargos, refrigeration systems, negligent navigation, unsafe ports, force majeure, piracy, quarantine, questions of laytime and demurrage, stowaways, stevedore damage and General Average, as well as claims by cargo interests under bills of lading.

Many of these disputes were the subject of LMAA and other forms of arbitration.  As a consequence, Michael also has considerable experience of the involvement of the Commercial Court in arbitration references. He has been involved in a number of freezing injunction applications, both pre-reference and post award.  He has also been involved with applications for anti-suit injunctions, the enforcement of peremptory orders and the delivery up of documents by third parties, as well as appeals from arbitration awards.

Selected cases:

• Michael acts for a large US-based owner in disputes against two charterers relating to issues of intermediate hold cleaning, speed and performance, warm water fouling and the costs of anti-piracy measures.
• Acts for a large US petroleum trading company in a dispute relating to the vetting of a chartered vessel by oil majors.
• Acts for a large P&I Club seeking to recover sums due under a letter of undertaking given by a large Dutch insurer.
• Acts for charterers and cargo interests in a dispute involving general average contributions and the construction of a jurisdiction and proper law clause in a general average bond.
• Acts for an intermediate charterer in a chartering chain in a claim for ice damage.  The reference has given rise to issues relating to the involvement of an assignee in an arbitration reference.
• Acted for a Bermuda- based intermediate charterer who successfully recovered from sub-charterers the costs of passing up the line against owners an unsuccessful claim originated by sub-charterers for a refusal to load cargo for discharge in Iraq.
• Acted for charterers in a dispute arising from a six-month charterparty of a vessel for the purpose of receiving, storing and discharging crude oil exploited or processed on the IMA oilfield in Nigeria. Charterers obtained a worldwide freezing injunction and associated disclosure orders.
• Statoil ASA v Louis Dreyfus Energy Services (“the Harriette N”) [2008] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 685; Shipping & Trade Law , 05 Nov 2008 , (2008) 8 STL 94 – Acted for Louis Dreyfus in an action brought by the claimant sellers, Statoil ASA, against the defendant buyers, Louis Dreyfus Energy Services LP, claiming a balance of demurrage under a cif contract for the sale of a cargo of liquid propane gas carried on board the vessel Harriette N.  The case raised a number of important issues relating to the law of unilateral mistake.
• Acted for Owners of a large reefer vessel in respect of alleged damage to a cargo of Cavendish bananas carried from Ecuador to Hamburg.
• Ease Faith v Leonis [2006] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 673 – Acted for tug owners in a three-handed dispute before Andrew Smith J in the Commercial Court which touched on a number of issues relating to the proper construction of the TOWCON form and the implied terms as to speed within that contract.
• Acted for South Korean builders and guarantors in a dispute over the delivery of a harsh environment jack-up drilling rig.
• Acted for Greek mortgagees in relation to disputes associated with the finance of 11 Spanish-built super trawlers operated by Russian interests in the Russian exclusive economic zone.
• Acted for Charterers in relation to the contamination of a cargo of cocoa loaded in Abidjan as a consequence of the corpses of stowaways being discovered in the holds at New York. 

Michael is regularly involved in disputes relating to the negligence of solicitors, insurance brokers and underwriting agents, and has also acted for and against insurers in cases involving the negligence of engineers, remediation contractors and surveyors.

Selected cases:

• Dunlop Haywards v Barbon [2010] Lloyd’s Rep IR 149 – Acted for subsidiary companies of the Erinaceous Group Plc in a claim against their negligent producing broker, giving rise to a third party claim against the placing broker as well as issues of rectification against the excess insurers.  The case culminated in a five-week trial in the Commercial Court where Michael was led by Alistair Schaff QC.  The judgment of Hamblen J sets out in detail the obligations owed by a producing broker to its client, and in turn by a Lloyd’s placing broker to the producing broker.  The judgment also deals with apportionment between professional brokers and an allegation of contributory negligence against the assured.
• Acted for subsidiaries of the Erinaceous Group plc, in relation to a series of claims made by various banks arising out of the negligence and/or fraud of a senior London-based surveyor.
• Acted for the Law Society in its efforts to recover sums misappropriated from client accounts by the senior partner of a number of firms of London solicitors from the other partners of the said firms. 
• Encia Remediation v Canopius Managing [2008] Lloyd’s Rep IR 79 – Acted for the insured remediation contractor in a claim on its professional indemnity policy relating to defective piling designed by the insured.
• Acted for Gerling, Zurich and other insurers in a claim arising out of an explosion in a massive blast furnace in Indiana.  The competing causes of the loss for which the parties contended were the innovative design of the blow pipe in which the explosion occurred or the faulty manufacture or maintenance of the same.
• HIH v Chase [2003] Lloyd’s Rep IR 203, [2003] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 61, [2003] 1 All ER (Comm)349 – Acted for the JP Morgan Chase Bank in the film finance litigation arising out of the Phoenix Slate and the three Paramount Slates, which involved allegations of negligence on the part of the bank’s brokers, C E Heaths.

Michael has experience of high value disputes arising from commercial paper programmes, collateralised debt obligations and credit default swaps.  In addition he is regularly involved in banking issues arising from mortgages, guarantees, letters of credit and letters of undertaking in the context of shipping and international trade.

Selected cases:

• Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank v IKB – Acts with Gavin Kealey QV and Alan Maclean QC of Brick Court Chambers for Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank in the dispute with the German Bank IKB arising out of the substantial investment banking transaction known as “Havenrock II”, whereby IKB sought to obtain liquidity support for its asset-backed commercial paper programme.  The case involves allegations of fraud on the part of IKB inducing Credit Agricole and FGIC to enter into, respectively, a put-option and two credit default, and a master financial guarantee policy.  It is scheduled for trial in October 2011.
  

Michael has been involved in claims arising out of the trading of oil and gas.  He has instructed in relation to insurance and reinsurance disputes relating to Energy risks, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico.  In addition he has experience of disputes arising out of the lease of drilling wells.

Selected cases:

• Acts for a Lloyd’s syndicate in a Commercial Court claim relating to the meaning of an excess clause in a facultative energy reinsurance.
• Acts for a Lloyd’s syndicate specialising in the insurance of energy risks in a dispute with their reinsurers relating to hurricane losses.
• Acted for a large Swiss Energy trader in an action against a Monegasque company arising from the delivery of off-spec Gasoil into tanks at Fos-sur-Mer.
• Acted for reinsurers in disputes with reinsureds arising out of the reinsurance of an open facility provided to a major UK-based energy exploration company.

Michael has acted in a wide-range of general commercial disputes including share sale agreements, sale of goods, and agency disputes.

Selected cases:

• Acted for a Scottish cashmere seller in a sale of goods dispute with their Italian buyers.
• Acted with David Edwards QC for a motorcycle insurance broker in a dispute with a firm of solicitors with which they had entered into an agreement to refer personal injury claims from.
• Acted for a company in the Groupama group in a dispute under a share sale agreement relating to undisclosed potential litigation against the company. 

Michael Holmes joins the junior rankings this year following glowing recommendations from instructing solicitors and peers alike. Sources say: “We were very impressed with his drafting skills and his understanding of complex commercial issues. I wouldn't hesitate to use him again" Chambers UK 2012