Mark J Forte

Practice Areas

Mark Forte is Managing Partner and Head of the Litigation and Restructuring practice in Conyers’ BVI office. He specialises in complex commercial litigation and contentious cross-border insolvency, being widely recognised for his emergency interim relief work and considerable insolvency experience. Mark also regularly advises foreign states, government agencies both at home and abroad, and liquidators on international asset tracing measures. He has appeared as an expert witness in proceedings as diverse as investment treaty arbitrations before the ICSD in Washington DC and the United States Bankruptcy Court.

Mark has over 30 years’ litigation experience, having started his professional career as a barrister at 8 King Street Chambers in England in 1989 after completing pupillage at Grays Inn, London. Since joining Conyers in 2004 to launch the BVI Litigation and Restructuring practice, he has grown the team to include ten experienced solicitors and barristers, all of whom are based in the BVI.

A frequently appearing advocate in some of the jurisdiction’s leading cases, Mark regularly acts as lead counsel in both Commercial Court and Court of Appeal cases, often against visiting counsel and Kings Counsel. His broad experience includes arbitration before various tribunals and assistance measures from the BVI courts to assist other arbitrations. In recent years, he has developed a strong practice in work involving the CIS states, in particular involving leading fraud and asset tracing work from that region, working both for in-house counsel and counsel located regionally. From his extensive work in both Russia and Kazakhstan in particular, Mark is familiar with the practices and cultures of the corporate landscape there and how that has evolved into work from other regions such as the UAE and Africa.

Mark leads the team acting for the largest creditor in the Three Arrows Capital insolvency, working with counsel from various countries in the highest value crypto related dispute in the BVI to ultimately set important and law-making precedents regarding crypto-related jurisprudence.

Globally recognised for his expertise, Mark has been ranked for the past 18 years by Chambers Global, as well as in Legal 500 which describes him as being “renowned in the jurisdiction” for his “huge experience” alongside his “gravitas and sure client touch”. He continues to be named as a thought leader by Who’s Who Legal in their Global Elite Asset Recovery list and is regularly ranked by the Global Restructuring Review, IFLR1000 and the CityWealth Leaders List, amongst others. A respected speaker, Mark has appeared as a panellist at COMBAR (UK), INSOL, C5 and other international conferences. He previously served on the editorial board of INSOL World and is currently a director of BVI International Arbitration Centre.