Patrick Kirkby

Patrick has over 21 years’ experience advising on a wide range of cross-border matters, primarily in the maritime sector.

His work in advising owners and financiers on deals has been recognised by Marine Money as recent Deals of the Year. He regularly supports banks, export credit agencies, multi-national and family shipowners, private equity, high net worth investors and operators on financing, investment, construction, operation, intercreditor and restructuring arrangements, achieving efficient solutions across complex projects.

Areas of special expertise include the structuring and restructuring of shipping finance, lease and credit-wrapped projects, tax and operating leases, inter-company joint venture, chartering and service arrangements for a wide spectrum of vessel types, including cruise ships, LNG and other product carriers, tankers, container ships, bulk carriers, car carriers and many other specialist sectors. Patrick also works in the financing and operation of FPSOs and drillships.

Patrick’s work often centres on the cross-over between owners’ needs – in the negotiation and documenting of construction, supervision, chartering, management, spares sharing, contracts of affreightment, joint ventures, supply agreements, service agreements and employment and procurement contracts – while assisting with them with their financing programmes, an approach he has developed having worked in private practice and in-house in Europe.

Patrick is recognised for his ability to help clients by simplifying complex issues in project, asset and corporate finance, whether that be documenting the world’s first combination of Korean private junior funding with K-Sure backed loans, working through a UK maritime pre-pack administration, successfully countering Chapter 11 claims, assessing the interplay of an owner’s intended financing arrangements with the constraints of its existing financings, achieving solutions on the seizure of a cargo-laden vessel off Somalia or documenting flexible secured and unsecured working capital arrangements for banks in the lynchpin financing of a major container ship operator.

He is recommended as a shipping finance expert by legal directories Legal 500 UK and IFLR 1000, with the former highlighting in 2019 that he is “’responsive, diligent and intelligent’.