Jonathan is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office in the Energy & Natural Resources Group.
Jonathan is an international lawyer with broad experience in cross-border transactions, international trade and trade litigation, public international law, compliance and international arbitration. He is qualified to practice in the United States and as a solicitor in the United Kingdom.
For more than 20 years, Jonathan has represented some of the world’s leading energy investors making cross border investments in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, North America, 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. During his tenure at predecessor law firms, Jonathan has served as managing partner of Beijing, Moscow and Almaty offices and served as Head, Emerging Markets Energy Strategies.
Transactional engagements
A hallmark of Jonathan’s international practice has been the representation of Chinese companies making investments abroad, as well as representing parties seeking investment or partnership with Chinese investors. He is widely credited with opening Central Asia to China energy investment in 1997, as legal counsel to the government of Kazakhstan.
Energy & development policy
In additional to his experience leading cross-border investment transactions, a distinctive aspect of Jonathan’s practice has been advising governments in matters pertaining to energy and economic development.
Jonathan has advised government officials on legal and fiscal regime development for oil & gas investment. He has taught a course, hosting government officials around the world, to discuss the legal and financial aspects of upstream legal regime and contractual negotiation, including:
- Fiscal regime development for the extractive industries
- National infrastructure, privatization, and development strategies law reform
- Trade and investment policy
- Sovereign external debt policy
