Jonathan is an international lawyer with broad experience in cross-border transactions in emerging markets. He is qualified to practice law in the United States and as a solicitor in the United Kingdom. For more than 25 years, Jonathan has represented some of the world’s leading investors making cross border investments in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Asia, Russia and Central Asia. He has been featured in the Chambers Guides to the World’s Leading Lawyers, The International Who’s Who of Oil & Gas Lawyers, The Euromoney Guide to the World’s Leading Energy and Natural Resources Lawyers and The Euromoney Guide to the World’s Leading Project Finance Lawyers. Jonathan has served as managing partner of Beijing, Moscow and Almaty offices and as the Head of Emerging Market Energy Strategies and Co-Head of International Trade at predecessor law firms.
Investment Transactions
Jonathan credited as the architect of China energy investment in Central Asia, when in 1997, as legal counsel to the Government of Kazakhstan, he negotiated investment by the China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation (CNODC) in the privatization tender for Kazakhstan's government-owned oil company, Aktyubemunaigaz and the related construction of the China-Kazakhstan pipeline. He subsequently represented China’s sovereign wealth fund, CIC, in China’s inaugural investment in Russia.
Innovation
Jonathan has led a number of innovation, law reform, and economic development initiatives:
- Kazakhstan’s law reform reshaping Kazakhstan’s command economy into a market economy and creating a legal enabling environment (more than 160 laws) facilitating foreign direct investment (FDI) and privatization at both the enterprise and sectoral levels;
- Architect of project finance structures used by oil producing governments to finance investments in renewables and other energy infrastructure;
- Green Cities - multi-disciplinary strategy to support for cities in improving their energy efficiency, conservation, and sustainability efforts;
- Luminent AI - a distributed data collection and analytics model to reduce the cost of regulatory compliance while providing actionable insights about risks and opportunities. Luminent's first application allows a pipeline operator to quickly comply with Department of Transportation (PHMSA) reporting and safety requirements, while identifying and distinguishing among various risks, and provides facility-specific data that can form the basis of investment decisions;
- International trade policy, free trade and economic development zone strategies in the context of the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement and subsequent NAFTA
- International Financial Institutions (IFI) policy - counselled and represented clients in negotiations involving the IFC, World Bank, African Development Bank, U.S. Export-Import Bank, JIBIC, and the U.S. Agency for International Development
- Infrastructure -- legal advisor to governments and investors in connection with structuring public and private investment in energy, transportation, and communications infrastructure oil & gas fiscal and contracting regime under a World Bank funded legal reform program.
Social Impact Projects
As Chairman of the Phelps Stokes Fund, a one-hundred year old philanthropy working in Africa, Jonathan has worked on numerous social impact projects, including innovative models for infrastructure venture capital, leveraging infrastructure to achieve development impact, and most notably work with the Africa Union’s NEPAD on the organization and financing of submarine fiber-optic communications cables around the Continent of Africa.
