Mark Johnson, a transactional lawyer and former naval officer and ship captain, has joined Haynes and Boone, LLP as a London partner in the firm’s Shipping Practice.
Johnson has extensive experience advising on the construction, sale and purchase, financing, management, operation and ownership of all types of vessels, including some of the world’s largest super yachts. His clients range from major banks and oil companies to shipowners, leasing companies and shipyards.
Johnson served 13 years in the Royal Navy, with a wide variety of posts including boarding office, navigating officer, and exchange officer (to the Royal Dutch Navy). He also served as a captain of a patrol boat through 2005 and 2006 – an appointment which included planning and directing the deployment of multiple patrol vessels in addition to his own. He said his experience as a naval officer working to build motivated teams and provide resilient planning and risk management has been helpful in his legal career.
Most recently, Johnson handled a broad range of matters, including advising companies in connection with building, acquiring, and disposing of vessels and rigs in the offshore oil and gas sector as well as negotiating the workout and restructuring of shipbuilding contracts.
Haynes and Boone is an international corporate law firm with offices in Texas, New York, California, Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai, providing a full spectrum of legal services in energy, technology, financial services and private equity. With more than 550 lawyers, Haynes and Boone is ranked among the largest U.S.-based firms by The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer and The Lawyer.
Since Haynes and Boone entered the London market in 2016 by merging with Curtis Davis Garrard LLP, it has hired lawyers from many established firms, more than doubling the London office’s partner headcount and broadening the office’s capabilities in arbitration, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, finance, energy, and shipping.