Mr. Forgione is an experienced international lawyer used to advise on contentious and non-contentious matters relating to shipping and the wider energy industry (mining, oil & gas commodity trading and renewables).
In his capacity as general counsel to various companies, as well as counsel and arbitrator, Mr. Forgione participated in several arbitrations on ICC, LCIA, LMAA, SIAC and SCMA terms.
On the shipping front, Mr Forgione is used to support ship owners, charterers, operators and pool managers with owning, operating and technically and commercially managing ships of various types. Mr Forgione has experience with both newbuilds and second-hand fleets and worked on nearly 200 newbuilding contracts with shipyards in Korea, Japan and China and over 50 vessel sale and purchase transactions including tankers, bulkers, containerships and offshore support vessels. Mr Forgione also advised on several projects for the conversion of vessels into bespoke floating terminals, which are now servicing the drybulk commodities industry across the globe.
In the energy segment, Mr. Forgione has advised companies and investors on a variety of commercial agreements concerning the securing of mining rights (ranging from full ownership of the mine to licensing of production and offtake agreements), the financing and sale of production (take or pay agreements, marketing and agency agreements, spot sales and long term supply agreements) in places as diverse as Russia (Kemerovo, coal mines), Indonesia (East Kalimantan, coal mines) and West Africa (Mauritania, iron ore; Congo, iron ore and gold). More recently, Mr Forgione has been handling oil & gas matters, primarily in West Africa (Senegal, Guinea Bissau and Congo). As far as the trading of energy commodities is concerned, Mr. Forgione has handled legal matters relating to the trading of coal, power, gas, uranium as well as synthetic products such as carbon emissions and freight forward agreements. More recently, Mr. Forgione has dealt with multiple projects in the renewables segment (wind and solar) on behalf of investors and operators.
Mr. Forgione has significant experience, primarily in his main practice areas, with corporate transactions such as equity investments, incorporated/unincorporated joint ventures, assets and business acquisitions/disposals as well as mergers & acquisitions and is used to handle the disputes usually arising out of these corporate events.
Mr. Forgione was a Tutor in International Trade Law and Admiralty Law at University College London (U.K.) and more recently a Visiting Lecturer in International Trade Law at King’s College (U.K.). Mr. Forgione has given lectures at LLM and LLB level at various universities in Europe and is a regular speaker at the well-known Short Course by the Institute of Maritime Law Southampton University.