Deirdre Fitzpatrick is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, with over 30 years’ experience. She worked in an international private practice law firm in London for many years, specialising in multi-jurisdictional oil and gas disputes. She has also worked extensively on matters relating to ship registration, personal injury and death claims on board ships, the abandonment of seafarers, payment of seafarers’ wages, and in the investigation of maritime casualties. She frequently attends the International Maritime Organization and the International Labor Organization and has a keen interest in all international maritime conventions, in particular in the manner in which they impact the human element. She was also heavily involved in some of the leading cases concerning the recognition of unions.
Deirdre headed the legal services department of the International Transport Workers’ Federation for many years and has been involved in many court and arbitral shipping disputes around the world. In her position as Executive Director of SRI, she runs a worldwide network of lawyers specialising in shipping and seafarer issues. She also runs research projects on several subjects of current interest in the shipping and seafaring world.
Deirdre is co-editor of ‘Seafarers’ Rights’, a comprehensive perspective on seafarers’ rights around the world which was published by Oxford University Press in 2005.
