Michael Collins KC
Michael Collins was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1971. Appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1988, he practised commercial law from Essex Court Chambers in London, England, for 30 years, until moving to the United States of America in 2002. He served as a Recorder of the Crown Court between 1994 – 2001. From 2002 – 2006 he spent 4 years as a Special Legal Consultant with the international arbitration practice of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, based in Washington DC. Since 2006 he has been associated with Hanscom & Collins PA, in Rockland, Maine, from where he practises as an international arbitrator and mediator, primarily based out of his homes in Florida and Maine, while also retaining his association with his Chambers in London, England.
Mr. Collins’ principal areas of specialisation at the English Bar included international and domestic arbitration, shipping (including shipbuilding disputes, ship sale and purchase, bill of lading and charterparty disputes, cargo claims, and limitation actions), insurance (marine & non-marine) and reinsurance, oil & gas, banking, construction, information technology, aviation and a wide variety of other contractual and tortious disputes of a technical or commercial nature.
In addition to his frequent appearances in the English trial and appellate courts, Mr. Collins has appeared as an advocate in the appellate courts of Hong Kong, Singapore and Bermuda, and in the trial courts in Singapore, arguing insurance, shipping, arbitration and other matters. Cases in those courts include: Insurance Co. of the State of Pennsylvania v. Grand Union Insurance Co. & Lowndes Lambert Construction Ltd. [1990] 1 LLR 208 (Hong Kong Court of Appeal – insurance/reinsurance); Lombard Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Kin Yuen Co. Pte. Ltd. (the “Pab”) (1995) (Singapore Court of Appeal – marine insurance); Associated Electric and Gas Insurance Services Ltd. v. European Reinsurance Co. of Zurich (2001) (Bermuda Court of Appeal – privacy/confidentiality in commercial arbitration).
Mr. Collins has 40 years’ experience of acting as a counsel in international and domestic arbitrations. Cases in which he acted as counsel include a major shipping arbitration concerning the long-term supply, shipment and delivery of LNG into the United States and the producability and valuation of unextracted gas reserves; two separate LCIA arbitrations concerning (i) operation of the credit card business; and (ii) the sale and distribution of digital satellite television services to the Middle East; and a dispute concerning the transportation of crude oil through a common pipeline, and the operation of a quality bank related to such transportation.
Mr. Collins has acted as chair or as a tribunal member in numerous ICC, LCIA, LMAA, SIAC, AAA (ICDR), ARIAS, UNCITRAL, ICSID and other institutional and ad hoc arbitrations over the past 35 years, regularly sitting in jurisdictions such as London, Paris, Stockholm, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Bermuda, Canada and the United States.
Mr. Collins is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration and a member of the American Arbitration Association ICDR International Arbitration Panel. He is also a CEDR-accredited mediator and has acted as a mediator in a variety of insurance, reinsurance and technical disputes in London, Sydney, Bermuda, New York and Washington D.C.