International law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has strengthened its asset finance capabilities with the arrival of maritime finance expert Georgia Asimakopoulos. She joins the firm's maritime, trade and offshore (MTO) practice as a partner, based in Greece.

Georgia has nearly twenty years of experience in representing European, Asian and US banks and other financial institutions on the financing of newbuilding and second-hand vessels under syndicated and bilateral loan and mezzanine facilities. She also has notable experience advising banks in the restructuring of maritime finance deals and bank portfolio transfers.

Georgia also represents shipowners in ship finance transactions, ship sale and purchase deals and shipbuilding contracts, and shipowners, charterers and back-financiers in sale and leaseback transactions.

Georgia is a Greek-American lawyer, who has lived in Greece since 2006. She is qualified in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Greece and England & Wales.

This is an exciting time for our team, with Georgia's arrival marking the third lateral partner hire in as many months, said Chris Vartzis, head of maritime finance for Greece, Stephenson Harwood. We have bold ambitions for our practice, and are implementing an aggressive growth strategy as we look to further bolster our market-leading maritime finance practice.

Since we identified transportation and trade as one of our key areas of strategic focus, we have been actively pursuing opportunities to boost our team and further strengthen our capabilities in this area – and doing so across our international network is an important facet of our approach, said Dora Mace-Kokota, who leads Stephenson Harwood's presence in Greece and is international head of maritime, trade and offshore at the firm. With the new breadth of senior expertise in our maritime finance practice in Greece now firmly secured, we are now turning our attention in earnest to further develop the wider practice to add dispute resolution and relevant Greek law expertise – ultimately creating a full-service offering for our clients here.

The award-winning Stephenson Harwood asset finance team has a long history of advising clients on a range of associated matters. With particular expertise in transportation – whether maritime, offshore, aviation, rail or bus – the team acts on financing and leasing transactions, portfolio management activities, acquisitions and disposals.

This news story was originally published on the firm’s website.