Finance
Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP has ‘highly knowledgeable lawyers with excellent business sense’. The firm acts for market participants across the entire commodities supply chain from producers through to trading companies and end users. Its work spans both soft and hard commodities, including oil and gas, chemicals, metals and mining, sugar, grain and coffee. The ’approachable, and knowledgeable’ George Mingay co-leads the practice with shipping and commodities specialist Mark Sachs, who has extensive experience in arbitrations in both London and Singapore. Mingay is on the legal panels of both the Sugar Association of London, and the Refined Sugar Association of London, and is a key adviser to the British Coffee Association. He also chairs the arbitration committee of the Minor Metals Trade Association. Commercial litigation partner Lisa Hillary is also a key member of the international trade, commodities, and shipping teams. The partners are backed up by a strong set of banking, finance and litigation associates.
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Profile
Work Department
Commercial dispute resolution, International trade, trade finance, commodities
Position
George is a partner in the international trade and commodities group in the London office. He is an expert in the resolution of disputes within the commodities sector relating to oil and gas, metals and mining, soft commodities and trade finance.
His expertise extends to the resolution of disputes in the English courts and under international arbitration rules – including those of the ICC, UNCITRAL and the LCIA – and trade arbitration rules – including those of FOSFA, GAFTA, the RSA and SAL. He also advises clients on non-contentious, regulatory and compliance issues.
George has advised national oil companies, international trading companies and other clients across the supply chain on disputes arising from drilling rig and FPSO contracts, sale and purchase agreements, and commercial and agency contracts. He frequently deals with non-payment, breach of warranty claims, quality and condition issues and many other contentious matters.
George spent six months seconded to the in-house legal department of Shell International in London. He regularly presents internationally at industry events on commodities, the law of the sea, oil and gas, and arbitration generally. He has served on numerous occasions as an honorary legal adviser at the Royal Courts of Justice CAB on a pro bono basis.
Career
He joined Thomas Cooper in 2018 as a partner having previously been at another leading UK City law firm.
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘The team is always available, aware of the problems we are facing, even if the individual lawyer we are working with is unavailable there is always somebody who can take over the case, offer advice and guide us to getting the results we are looking for.’
‘Working with George Mingay has been a pleasure and an eye-opener. George always has good advice and, on many occasions, comes up with a unique way of dealing with a problem or approaching our counter-parties. George has also been an adviser to commodity trade arbitrations I have served on, his input has been invaluable.’
‘Very user-friendly and efficient. Team has wide relevant experience.’
‘George Mingay stands out and is very focused and commercially aware.’
‘The team is very professional and knowledgeable about commodities disputes. They provided great advice and submitted potential lines of action so that we could select the most suitable one for our case. The outcome was very satisfactory for our company. I strongly recommend them.’
‘George Mingay was absolutely fantastic. He also taught us legal options towards amicable resolutions that we had not seen before. I have almost two decades of experience in commodities and therefore working with Penningtons was an amazing learning experience.'
'Julia Goroszeniuk, an associate, was very good at sending top notch draft messages for our revision before we would share them with our counterparty. She always sent them within the time frame promised. Thanks to both of them, our negotiations with our valuable customer were characterized by an absence of discord. The services they provided, based on the excellent outcome, exceeded our expectations.’
‘George Mingay is my main contact. I rate him highly. He is understated but clear and clam in his approach.’
Key clients
- The Refined Sugar Association The Sugar Association of London British Coffee Association Agricultural Bank of China BACB (British Arab Commercial Bank) National Bank of Greece Bank ABC RJH Trading Limited Ayhan Sezer Yag Ve Gida Endustrisi Ticaret Ltd. Sti.