HFW: Ships Built in China, Cases Fought in London / 夏礼文（HFW）：船在中国造，官司在伦敦打

HFW: Ships Built in China, Cases Fought in London

夏礼文（HFW）：船在中国造，官司在伦敦打

On October 21, 2026, at a session of the Shanghai Pudong International Shipping Week, HFW partner Thilo Jahn spoke on “the cost of uncertainty.” Five years ago, his team won a US$170 million ship-payment case for a Chinese shipyard. Why would a British law firm come to a Chinese shipping forum to talk about that subject?

2026 年 10 月 21 日，上海浦东国际航运周的分会上，夏礼文合伙人杨题楼讲了「不确定性的代价」。五年前，他的团队替一家中国船厂打赢一笔 1.7 亿美元的船款官司。一家英国律所，为什么到中国的航运场子讲这个题目？

01  Shipowners, Cargo Owners, and Insurers

01  船东、货主、保险人

HFW was founded in London in 1883. In the shipping trade of the nineteenth century, shipowners, cargo owners, and insurers could not avoid three questions: at which port a vessel counts as off-hire, on whose crane the cargo was damaged, and whether an exclusion in a policy holds up. HFW started from these three, with disputes and compliance as its core. In 2003 the firm reorganized its departments from the bottom up, aimed squarely at the image of “a firm that only does shipping.” From then on the department list has been organized by industry sector: aviation, commodities, construction, energy, insurance, and shipping — six sectors, each formed into its own group, with deal lawyers, dispute lawyers, finance lawyers, and regulatory lawyers mixed inside the groups; legal disciplines like corporate law and litigation are not the basis for grouping. The upside of this arrangement shows up in handoffs. A single cargo loss engages the charter party, the policy, and the financing documents at once, and people in the same group do not need a meeting first to align their terms. The cost is that staff cannot backfill one another: each sector group has to carry its own people who know the trade, and a gap in one group cannot be filled from another.

夏礼文 1883 年在伦敦成立。十九世纪的海运生意里，船东、货主与保险人绕不开三件事：船在哪个港口算停租、货在谁的吊机上受损、一张保单里的免责条款算不算数。夏礼文从这三件事起手，主业是争议与合规。2003 年该律所做了一次自下而上的部门重组，要改变的正是「一家只会做航运的律所」这个形象，此后部门表按行业排：航空、大宗商品、建设工程、能源、保险、航运，六个行业各自成组，做交易、打争议、管融资、跑监管的人混编在组内，公司法与诉讼这样的法律门类不作分组依据。这种编法的好处在交接。一票货的损失同时牵动租约、保单与融资文件，同一组的人不必先开会对接术语。代价在人手不能互相顶替：每个行业组都得自己养一批懂行的人，一个组缺人手，另一个组补不上。

02  Twenty-Two Offices, Six Sectors

02  二十二个办公室，六个行业

Today HFW has 22 offices and more than 700 lawyers — mid-sized among international law firms. Those 700-plus lawyers are organized around six sector groups: aviation, commodities, construction, energy, insurance, and shipping. Shipping alone accounts for more than 200 specialist shipping lawyers worldwide, plus 14 people who came up as ship captains and crew. Beyond the groups sit cross-cutting practices such as corporate work and dispute resolution. On the 2024 fiscal year measure, disputes account for around seventy percent of total revenue; corporate-side transactional work is what HFW lists as the area to build up. The offices run from London and Athens to Singapore and Melbourne, mostly landing in the world’s main shipping and insurance hubs. Hong Kong, China is one stop. The Middle East is another cluster, with offices in all four of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, and Riyadh.

今天的夏礼文有 22 个办公室、700 余名律师，在国际律所里属于中等规模。这 700 多名律师以六个行业组为主干：航空、大宗商品、建设工程、能源、保险、航运。仅航运一项，全球就有 200 多名专业航运律师，另有 14 名船长与船员出身的人员。各组之外另有公司法、争议解决等横向业务。按 2024 财年的口径，争议业务占其总收入七成上下；公司业务那类交易，被夏礼文列为要补强的方向。办公室从伦敦、雅典排到新加坡、墨尔本等地，落点基本在世界主要航运与保险枢纽上。中国香港是其中一站。中东是另一处密集区，迪拜、阿布扎比、科威特与利雅得四地都设了办公室。

The Chambers Global Guide 2026 gave it 83 rankings, with shipping litigation listed as a Global Market Leader; in the UK guide, four categories sit in Band 1 — shipping, aviation, commodities (physical), and transport and logistics — with insurance (mainly policyholders) in Band 2 and sanctions in Band 3 (newly ranked). In the Greece section of Chambers Europe and the Australia section of the Asia-Pacific guide, shipping sits in Band 1; in the UAE section of the Chambers Global Guide, HFW’s shipping finance and shipping disputes both sit in Band 1. HFW’s own materials say it is one of the few firms in Asia-Pacific able to offer shipping services across the whole chain, with strengths in maritime casualties and crisis response, complex disputes, ship finance, offshore oil and gas, and shipbuilding. Chambers’ comment is that its shipping litigation practice is solid in China, Singapore, and Australia.

2026 年的钱伯斯全球指南给了它 83 项排名，航运诉讼被列入全球市场领先者；英国指南里，航运、航空、大宗商品（实物）、运输与物流四个门类列第一档，保险（主要被保险人）第二档，制裁第三档（新入榜）。钱伯斯欧洲指南的希腊部分、亚太指南的澳大利亚部分，航运都列第一档；钱伯斯全球指南的阿联酋部分，夏礼文的航运融资与航运争议两个门类同时列第一档。夏礼文自己的介绍里说，它是亚太少数能就航运提供全链条服务的律所之一，强项包括海事事故与危机处理、复杂争议、船舶融资、海上油气与船舶建造。钱伯斯的评语是，它的航运诉讼业务在中国、新加坡与澳大利亚都做得扎实。

03  Three Footholds

03  三处落点

HFW has set up three representative offices in mainland China over the years, mostly taking on the same body of work: disputes and compliance in shipping, insurance, and commodities. On March 12, 1999, the Ministry of Justice approved the establishment of its Shanghai representative office. On March 30, 2016, the joint operation office of HFW and Shanghai Yingtai Law Firm (now Wintell & Co) opened for business in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone — the first Shanghai firm approved to enter a joint operation with a foreign firm. On June 13, 2023, the Ministry of Justice approved its Shenzhen representative office, which landed in the Qianhai International Arbitration Building.

夏礼文进入中国内地，前后设过三个代表处，接的大多是同一批业务：航运、保险与大宗的争议和合规。1999 年 3 月 12 日，司法部批准其上海代表处设立。2016 年 3 月 30 日，夏礼文与上海瀛泰律师事务所（今功承瀛泰）在上海自贸区的联营办公室对外营业，是上海本地律所中第一家获批与外国律所联营的。2023 年 6 月 13 日，司法部批准它在深圳设代表处，落地前海国际仲裁大厦。

The work the Shanghai representative office normally takes on can be gauged from a 2021 case. Shanghai Shipyard sued a buyer’s parent company for about US$170 million in final installments of the ship’s price for an offshore drilling vessel, under a payment guarantee. The English High Court at first instance held the guarantee to be an accessory guarantee, so the buyer’s parent could wait for the arbitration result before paying; HFW’s Shanghai team acted on the appeal, and on July 23, 2021 the Court of Appeal overturned the first-instance judgment, holding the guarantee’s text to be an on-demand payment guarantee. The team was led by Shanghai-based partner Nicholas Poynder, with Thilo Jahn among its members. There is a case on the sanctions side too: after Shanghai Junzheng Shipping’s wholly-owned subsidiary was added to the U.S. Treasury’s SDN list, the two sides of the joint operation split the work — the Chinese side took compliance and classified-information review, the British side drafted the delisting strategy. The three footholds divide the work: the Shanghai representative office takes shipping and insurance, the joint operation office covers the Chinese-law side, and the Shenzhen representative office takes commercial and dispute needs of Greater Bay Area enterprises.

上海代表处平时接的业务，从2021 年的一起官司可以了解。上海船厂为一艘海上钻井船向买方母公司追讨约 1.7 亿美元末期船款，依据是一份付款保函。英国高等法院一审认定它属于从属性的担保，买方母公司可以等到仲裁结果再付；夏礼文上海团队代理上诉，2021 年 7 月 23 日英国上诉法院推翻一审，认定保函文本构成见索即付的付款担保。带队的驻上海合伙人 Nicholas Poynder，成员里有杨题楼。制裁那一侧也有案子：上海君正船务的全资子公司被列入美国财政部 SDN 清单后，联营两边分工，中方做合规与涉密审查，英方拟除名策略。三处落点各有分工：上海代表处做航运保险，联营所补中国法那一侧，深圳代表处接大湾区企业的商业与争议需求。

Sun Jinjun says that since the Shenzhen representative office moved into Qianhai, companies come through the door every month. He puts the reason down to Shenzhen’s industrial structure: a dense population of tech ventures, a wave of small and mid-sized companies eager to expand abroad, and a foreign law firm offering front-line, market-close service at the companies’ own doorstep. In March 2026, four more international legal institutions landed in Qianhai: Taylor Wessing moved its representative office from Beijing, and China Commercial Law Firm and Pinsent Masons set up a joint operation office. The Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Legal Services District has since gathered 9 representative offices of foreign firms and 2 Sino-foreign joint operation offices. More and more firms are putting down roots in Qianhai.

孙晋军说，深圳代表处进驻前海以来，每月都有企业登门。他把原因归在深圳的产业结构上：科创企业多，涌现出大批积极出海的中小企业，外资律所在企业家家门口提供贴近市场一线的服务。2026 年 3 月，前海又有四家国际法律机构落户，德国泰乐信把代表处从北京迁来，华商与英国品诚梅森设联营办公室。前海深港国际法务区至此集聚 9 家外国律所代表机构和 2 家中外联营办公室。到前海设点的律所越聚越多。

04  “The Cost of Uncertainty”

04  “不确定的代价”

Foreign law firms in China fall roughly into two types. For the deal-and-issuance kind, the work follows the listing venue: as Hong Kong’s IPO windows open and close, the representative office’s caseload rises and falls. For the dispute-and-compliance kind, the work follows the governing law of the contract and the seat of arbitration: as long as Chinese companies’ contracts still cite English law and still hand their disputes to London, the caseload will not dry up. HFW is the latter.

在华外资律所大致分两种。做交易与发行的这类律所，案子跟着发行地走，港股的发行窗口一开一合，代表处的案源就跟着起落。做争议与合规的这类律所，案子跟着合同准据法与仲裁地走，只要中国企业的合同还写着英国法、还把争议交给伦敦，案源就不会断。夏礼文属于后一种。

The case can be fought to judgment under the contract, but whether the money comes back is not for the court to decide. Junzheng Shipping’s wholly-owned subsidiary was added to the U.S. Treasury’s SDN list in 2020, the payment channels closed with it, and delisting took more than one year — whether you win is up to the court; whether the money gets through is up to the list. HFW’s China work happens to straddle both sides: how the contract is drafted and where the seat of arbitration is chosen decide where the case is fought; whether a name is on the list decides whether money can be recovered after the case is won. This British law firm came to a Chinese shipping forum to talk about “the cost of uncertainty.” Beyond the judgment there is the list — and that is the cost.

官司能按合同打下来，但钱能不能收回来，不由法庭说了算。君正船务的全资子公司 2020 年被列进美国财政部的 SDN 清单，支付通道随之关闭，解除列名花了一年多时间——赢不赢在法庭，通不通在名单。夏礼文在中国的业务，恰好跨在两边：合同怎么写、仲裁地选在哪里，决定官司在哪儿打；名单上有没有名字，决定赢下官司之后钱收不收得回来。这家英国律所到中国的航运场子讲「不确定性的代价」。判决之外还有名单，这就是那笔代价。