Ann Fenech is the head of the marine litigation department at Fenech & Fenech Advocates.  She is the past Managing Partner of the firm, having occupied the position of Managing Partner from 2008 to 2020. She qualified in 1986 and joined Holman Fenwick and Willan in London. From there she moved to Chaffe McCall Phillips Toler and Sarpy in New Orleans. On joining Fenech & Fenech in 1992, she created the marine litigation department. She has dealt exclusively with maritime issues for the past 36 years ranging from salvage to charterparty disputes and from towage to enforcement of mortgages. She lectures at the University of Malta and the International Maritime Law Institute and is a regular guest speaker at overseas maritime fora.

She was the President of the Malta Maritime Law Association from 2008 until 2022, and has been a board member of the European Maritime Law Organisation since 2008. In 2012, 2014 and 2015 she was awarded Best in Shipping Law at the European Women in Business Law Awards held in London. From 2000 to 2010 she was the Chairman of the Pilotage Board and responsible for the drafting of the Pilotage Regulations 2003. In 2013 she was appointed Honorary Patron of the Malta Law Academy. In 2014 she was elected to the Executive Council of the Comité Maritime International (CMI). She was one of the founding members of the Malta Maritime Forum in 2015. She has been the co-Chair of the CMI IWG on International Recognition of Judicial Sales and the chief co-ordinator for the CMI in Working Group V1 at UNCITRAL which was deliberating and working on the CMI Beijing Draft on Judicial Sales of Ships. In December 2022 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UN Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships.

Dr Fenech is a member of the CMI IWG on Arrest of Ships and was Chair of the IWG on Ship Finance Security Practices. In October 2018 she was awarded the Honorary Membership of the Croatian Maritime Law Association. In November 2018 she was elected Vice President of the CMI at a General Assembly meeting at the IMO in London, and re-elected to the same position for a second term in 2021. She was elected President of the CMI during the General Assembly of the CMI held in Antwerp on Friday 21st October 2022. She is the first female to occupy this position in the 125 year history of the CMI. She has been involved in drafting a number of laws relating to shipping in Malta including amendments to the Merchant Shipping Act and the articles on actions in rem in the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure.