Profiles Henry Page Qualified as an English Solicitor in 1977. Mr Page was in General practice in a firm in England until 1981 when he joined Holman, Fenwick and Willan, the shipping law specialists. He spent approximately 10 years at Holman, Fenwick and Willan, Paris office, dealing with shipping law disputes of all nature including charterparty and Bill of Lading disputes, salvage, conservatory arrest of vessels and other assets, arbitration and court work in different jurisdictions. He was one of the leading lawyers in the series of Romanian ship arrest cases (Navrom) that constituted a significant development in piercing the corporate veil on a State scale in France, enabling Romanian vessels to be arrested in France for the debts of other Romanian state owned companies. He was also the lawyer acting for the successful party in the important House of Lords case, the Simona (Fercometal v Mediterranean Shipping Company SA, HL 1988) which is one of the leading contract law cases in England. Mr Page then joined Withers in their Paris office as a partner in 1989. Withers is a firm best known for its private client work but in the Paris office the firm dealt mainly with commercial, contentious and transactional matters including aircraft finance. Mr Page continued his maritime work and developed into other areas including the law of privacy, banking law, Letter of Credit disputes and arbitrations in different jurisdictions. In 1995 Mr Page was invited to take over as resident partner of Penningtons Law Office in Paris. In 2005 Penningtons Paris office became a separate entity under the name of Penlaw Selarl due to the fact that Penningtons was changing to LLP status in London , which would have given rise to tax and regulatory complications if the LLP had offices in different countries. Penlaw and Penningtons still work closely together and are associated under a Transnational Agreement. Mr Page became a French avocat in 1991 and his practice now includes: Aviation; including aircraft leasing, aircraft finance, contracts and disputes with maintenance providers and other aviation related matters; negotiating maintenance agreements for airframe and engines; regulatory requirements with the DGAC and other aviation law considerations. Shipping; including Bill of Lading and charterparty disputes, pollution, salvage, sale and purchase and disputes of all nature arising in the context of maritime business. Banking; including Letter of Credit and guarantee problems as well as regularly advising a number of banks generally including in employment law and in their regulatory requirements. Advice on tax structures, tax related disputes and certain criminal matters including problems relating to customs and tax authorities. Acting for and against Sovereign States. Construction disputes before the ICC and other jurisdictions. Advising on appropriate structures for holding real property and other private client type matters. Mr Page, given his dual qualification and residence in France for about 25 years, is well placed to advise clients in matters where more than one jurisdiction is concerned (for example advising English clients on French matters or French/ French speaking clients on English matters). He deals with significant arbitrations and court work in various jurisdictions. Mr Page has strong connections with the Middle East and acts for Middle East Airlines as well as other airlines, ground handling companies and aviation related enterprises. |