Donald Chard FICS FCIArb has been in shipping for over fifty years. After almost thirty-nine years at the UK Chamber of Shipping, where he was Head of Legal and Documentary, and a further seven and a half years as a Consultant to BIMCO, he is now a full-time Arbitrator.
He has a special interest in documentary issues. During his career at the UK Chamber of Shipping and with BIMCO, he was actively involved in the development and revision of charter parties; charter party clauses including war risks, piracy, sanctions, hull fouling, anti-corruption and electronic bills of lading; and specialist contracts including novation agreements for substituting time charterers and ownership, pooling contracts, contract of affreightment for bulk trades, ship repair contract, laytime definitions, ship managers’ letter of undertaking and ship agency agreements.
He has a particular interest in questions concerning demurrage and presented a paper “Is demurrage the complete remedy?” at the 2026 International Congress of Maritime Arbitrators in Singapore.
He also has experience in matters concerning the law of carriage of goods by sea.
Other work over the years has included involvement in public and private law liability conventions, competition law and representing industry interests at the EU, IMO and UNCITRAL together with active participation at CMI Conferences.
Publications include: Associate authorship contribution “Farthing on International Shipping” (Fourth edition 2013); contributor to International Comparative Legal Guide to Shipping Law (2017 and 2018); and occasional articles for specialist maritime law and trade journals.