Giannis Petras

Giannis Petras is a Senior Associate in the Transport & Insurance practice based in Dubai, primarily focusing on matters related to the whole spectrum of the maritime industry, ranging from ship-owning and ship financing to aspects related to supply chain and logistics. His primary practice area is Maritime Law.

He has over 7 years' experience advising on multi-jurisdictional transactional shipping and finance matters. He also advises regularly on matters related to logistics and supply chain, assisting UAE and GCC companies, as well as one of the largest market cap companies in the world with respect to its regional and MENA expansion.

He has further assisted clients in matters related to ports' management and operations, including public-private partnership (PPP) contracts between government entities and private companies. He has particular expertise in ship sale and purchase transactions, shipbuilding contracts, and asset-secured financing facilities (syndicated and bilateral) to the shipping industry. He also advises clients on matters related to dispute resolution proceedings in the UAE concerning the aforementioned sectors.

His recent experience includes advising and assisting clients in the sale and purchase of multiple vessels in the last calendar year, with a combined value of over USD 90 million; advising on a regular basis one of the largest three logistics companies in the world (also one of the ten largest market cap entities) in relation to its operations regarding logistics and supply chain, covering aspects of its regional operations, including in the UAE, KSA and Egypt; and advising clients involved in the logistics industry on regulatory and contractual aspects of their supply chain operations in the ports of the UAE.

He has also advised shipowners, managers and operators on multiple ship management and chartering agreements related to tanker and cargo vessels, as well as commercial yachts; advised GCC governmental and private entities on aspects relating to port management and operations, including PPA arrangements and port management contracts; and advised a ship-owning firm on the completion of three shipbuilding contracts for the construction of tanker vessels with a major Korean shipyard, with a value of USD 138 million.

Other matters include advising a shipping and energy company in a joint venture for a cross-border acquisition of a refinery, with a value of USD 25 million; assisting clients in the acquisition of three luxury super-yachts with a combined value of USD 210 million; and advising shipping companies on various matters including licensing, financing agreements, bunker trading matters, as well as the corporate structure of shipping firms.

He holds an LLM in Commercial Law from the University of Cambridge (2020), an LLM in Maritime Law from the University of Athens (2018) and a Bachelor of Laws from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2016). He was admitted to the Piraeus Bar Association, Greece in 2019 and speaks Greek and English.