About Us

Vassallo Associates is a multidisciplinary legal and technical practice with a heritage dating back to 1870. While our roots lie in the maritime sector, today we provide comprehensive litigation, legal, claims, risk, technical consultancy and assurance services across a broad range of industries.

Serving international clients, insurers, underwriters, law firms and governments, we combine legal expertise with specialist technical knowledge and commercial insight to deliver practical solutions to complex legal, regulatory and operational challenges.

With offices in Malta and the United Kingdom, our team supports clients operating across multiple jurisdictions, helping them navigate legal disputes, strengthen governance, improve operational performance and manage risk with confidence.

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Heightened Litigation Support

We act in some of Malta’s most complex and high-value commercial disputes, for clients ranging from insurers to corporates, financial institutions and governments.

Vassallo Associates began as a maritime practice in 1870. Across five generations we have grown into a full commercial litigation firm – the same legal rigour and technical grounding that shipowners and insurers have relied on for over 150 years, now applied across the whole spectrum of commercial disputes our clients bring to us.

Areas Of Commercial Litigation:

—           Marine, Shipping and Insurance Disputes

—           Banking and Financial Disputes

—           Shareholder and Corporate Disputes

—           Insurance and Reinsurance Disputes

—           Regulatory Investigations and Compliance Litigation

—           Governance and ESG-Related Disputes

—           Cross-Border and International Commercial Disputes

—           Heightened Litigation

A Multidisciplinary Approach

What sets Vassallo Associates apart is our ability to combine legal excellence with technical expertise.

Our advocates and litigation lawyers work seamlessly alongside engineers, marine surveyors, auditors, consultants, and industry specialists to deliver integrated solutions for the most complex legal and commercial challenges.

Whether resolving high-stakes disputes, managing international insurance claims, conducting technical investigations and surveys, strengthening corporate governance, or preparing organisations for certification and regulatory compliance, we provide advice that is legally sound, technically rigorous, and commercially astute.

By bringing multidisciplinary expertise under one roof, we deliver practical, strategic solutions tailored to each client’s objectives—particularly where the consequences are significant and there is no room for error.

Developing Together

Our success is built on the quality of our people. We work with experienced consultants and associates who are recognised experts in their respective disciplines, enabling us to provide clients with specialist knowledge and practical solutions.

Everything we do is guided by six core values:

• Responsiveness
• Quality
• Safety
• Ethics
• Innovation
• Value

These principles shape our culture and influence every engagement. We continually invest in our people through professional development, collaboration and knowledge sharing, ensuring they remain at the forefront of legal, technical and industry developments.

Right First Time

Our clients trust us to provide advice they can rely upon. In many of the sectors we serve, mistakes can have significant legal, financial and operational consequences.

Our Right First Time philosophy reflects our commitment to delivering work accurately, consistently and to the highest professional standards. We treat quality with the same importance as safety, making it a responsibility shared by everyone within the firm.

By combining experienced professionals with rigorous processes and independent thinking, we strive to deliver the right outcome the first time, every time.

A Heritage of Trust Since 1870

Vassallo Associates traces its origins to 1870, when Henry Vassallo established H. Vassallo in Malta, specialising in marine and insurance services. On 20 June 1910, his son Charles Vassallo formally joined the business before later assuming leadership. During its history the firm also traded as A. Duncan & Co., a name recorded in Lloyd Maltese in February 1940.

Over more than 150 years and five generations, the firm grew into one of Malta’s leading maritime legal and technical practices, acting for shipowners, insurers, underwriters and commercial organisations. Our archives still hold handwritten correspondence with Hull Clubs from the nineteenth century – evidence of relationships in this industry that outlast individual careers.

That maritime foundation is still the core of who we are, but it has not been the limit of what we do for a long time. Today Vassallo Associates operates as a full commercial litigation practice: built on marine and insurance disputes, and extending across banking and financial disputes, shareholder conflicts, regulatory investigations, governance, ESG and specialist consultancy.

Our client base has changed with the century. Our method has not: test every legal position against technical fact, deliver independent advice, and act – fast – when it matters most.