Maritime Lawyers: the last resort or part of the client's business strategy?

Abstract

Massey explores some ideas about the changing perception, from a consumer's point of view, of the role of maritime lawyers in the current commercial and financial environment. Massey focuses in particular on the growing trend of alternative dispute resolution, while arguing that dispute resolution should be placed as the third and last of a lawyer's tasks after assisting the client to an understanding of what the law provides, and helping the client to make rational, strategic business decisions so as to minimise commercial risks, so that the need for dispute resolution never arises. That is, the lawyer's focus should be on dispute prevention, not resolution.