Timagenis Law Firm

Firm overview: Timagenis Law Firm was founded in 1977 and is currently one of the most prominent law firms in Greece. Timagenis Law Firm offers expert legal advice and personalised services to its international and domestic clients in all areas of commercial law. The firm’s traditional focus lies in shipping, banking and finance, shipping taxation, general corporate and commercial matters, private client work and estate planning, as well as complex domestic and cross-border dispute resolution cases in both arbitration and court litigation.

Main areas of practice
Maritime: The firm provides all the legal services required by domestic or international companies involved in shipping. The practice of the firm includes contentious matters relating to admiralty, salvage, towage, collision, charterparties, carriage by sea, bills of lading, cargo claims, personal injury, as well as arrest of ships, enforced sale of ships, maritime liens and enforcement of ship finance securities (ship finance banking litigation, maritime debt recovery and piercing of corporate veil proceedings). It has a strong reputation in dealing with matters pertaining to all non-contentious and corporate aspects of shipping, including inter alia incorporation of various types of shipping companies, sale and purchase of ships, as well as ship and mortgage registration. A particular strength of the firm is dealing with every aspect of ship financing including negotiation of ship finance loan agreements for newbuilding and second-hand vessels, refinancings, work-outs and restructurings in the context of problematic and non-performing shipping loans, and advising on transfers of ship finance portfolios.

Dispute resolution and arbitration: The firm has a formidable reputation for expertise and legal skill in complex domestic and international litigations with multi-jurisdictional elements, as well as arbitrations conducted in accordance with the rules of ICC, LCIA, LMAA, PAMA and the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping. Gregory Timagenis has been appointed regularly as an arbitrator in ICC and Hellenic Chamber of Shipping arbitrations. The firm is regularly involved in the recognition and the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards and foreign judgments.

Banking and finance: The firm advises a number of Greek and foreign banks on their typical banking activities, as well as on financings and litigations arising out of financial transactions. The firm’s practice on the transactional side involves advising banks in agreements for the financing or refinancing particularly of new building and second-hand vessels, in foreign exchange transactions, swaps and other derivatives, including related netting issues, money laundering, consumers’ protection, data protection, the transfer of banking business, transfer of loan portfolios, restructurings and work-outs as well as on usual banking work (such as bank licensing, KYC, AML, bank guarantees and letters of credit, transfers, taxation of banks, bank secrecy etc).

The firm offers comprehensive legal advice on all financing matters, including the structure of the financing transaction both from bank’s perspective and from borrower’s and the handling of the transaction from its inception up to the closing and involves single-ship or multi-ship financing, bilateral or syndicated, term loans, revolving credit facilities, mezzanine financing as well as sale and leaseback transactions (particularly involving Chinese lease companies), risk participation agreements, assignments of loans, and transfer of portfolios including transfer of the relevant security package etc. The firm also handles restructuring and work-out transactions and the preparation and negotiation of the relevant documentation including interim settlements, standstill and forbearance agreements. In the context of banking litigation, the firm has been involved in debt recovery claims for banks at both domestic and cross-border scale including enforcement of judgments and arbitral awards, enforcement of mortgages on ships or real estate, arrest of vessels, bank account attachments and in general enforcement of the entire security package of a ship finance loan agreement, performing asset searches, piercing of corporate veil proceedings and imposing interim charges such as provisional orders, prenotations or similar charges on assets.

Capital markets and securities: The firm advises banks as underwriters and companies/issuers in international capital markets transactions and their subsequent relations with their respective stock exchange and the capital market authorities. The firm is particularly specialised in the listing of shipping companies in international securities exchanges (more commonly on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ in cooperation with US securities law firms), and has also advised the first shipping company to be listed with the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX). The firm acted as issuer’s Greek Counsel in major bond offerings, such as the issuance of the ground-breaking €400m high yield bond to partly finance the acquisition of a 33% stake in a major ATHEX listed corporation. The firm consistently acts as Greek law counsel and provides legal opinions to underwriters regarding IPOs and follow-on offerings pertaining to Greek interest listed shipping companies.

Mergers and acquisitions: The firm has extensive experience in advising on joint ventures, shareholders’ agreements and M&As, advising both Greek shipowners and foreign investors. The firm assists in the structuring of the transaction from inception to closing including preparing the necessary agreements and corporate structure, coordinating foreign counsel, carrying out the necessary legal due diligence and organising the completion of complex business combination transactions.

General commercial and corporate: The firm provides comprehensive advice to corporations with particular emphasis on Greek and foreign shipping and ship management companies, providing legal support on a broad aspect of matters including from everyday legal issues to complex corporate and commercial matters. The firm is involved in the drafting and negotiation of commercial contracts of all types including lease, employment, outsourcing, IT, distribution and agency agreements, as well as bankruptcy and reorganisation, trademarks, agency, employment etc. The firm has long standing expertise in the incorporation and legal issues of all types of Greek companies, shipping and non-shipping, and provides regular advice on the setup, establishment, organisation and structuring of groups of companies and multinational corporations with branches or subsidiaries in Greece.

Real estate: The firm deals with the sale and purchase of real estate, often combined with the creation of a corporate structure for real estate ownership, the import/export of capital, tax issues, and many other issues, occasionally with the assistance of local counsel when a foreign law elements are involved. The firm engages in ownership investigation, asset searches as well as mortgages and prenotations of real estate as security for debts.

Shipping administrative and taxation: Administrative and taxation matters are dealt with by the firm in all cases of corporate and banking work, foreign investment, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, transfer of business and inheritance cases. On the advisory side, the firm provides regular advice to individuals, ship management and shipbroking companies on all shipping taxation matters. On the contentious side, the firm handles shipping related administrative and taxation proceedings. In particular, the firm has successfully represented individual ship-owners and ship management companies in administrative and taxation proceedings before all court levels as well as before public authorities and regulators. The firm successfully acted for the Union of Shipowners of Passenger Ships before the full session of the Legal Council of the State in connection with the VAT relating to the bars and restaurants consumption on board passenger ships and ferries performing international voyages.

Private clients - inheritance and estate planning: The firm has extensive experience in dealing with wealth and estate planning for high net-worth families, on a highly confidential basis. This typically involves shipping clients resident in Greece and abroad, especially where business and assets are located in more than one jurisdiction and coordination with foreign counsel is necessary.

Data protection: The firm was the first shipping firm to provide advice on data protection matters under the Directive 95/46/ EC regime. Currently the firm offers bespoke legal advice on data protection and privacy matters in Greece, and is advising its shipping clients in all aspects of application of the GDPR and its impact on their business operations.

Employment: The firm advises Greek and international corporations with branch offices in Greece in all aspects of employment laws in Greece.