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John Benson
Lawyers profile
Global 2026
Lawyers profile | Global 2026: General Business Law, Shipping
John Benson
Ranked in 2 Practice Areas

Expertise Based Abroad

General Business Law

Marshall Islands

7 Years Ranked

Expertise Based Abroad

Shipping

Liberia

5 Years Ranked

Ranked in Guides
USA 2025
Asia-Pacific 2026

About

Provided by John Benson

Global

Practice Areas

John in a Partner in the Finance Group.

John regularly represents financial institutions, private equity and other investment funds as well as foreign and domestic owners and operators in the international shipping markets, with an emphasis on the negotiation and documentation of cross-border asset-backed structured transactions and joint ventures.

Career

John is admitted to practice law in New York and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and advises and issues opinions relating to entities formed in the Marshall Islands and Liberia.

He is recognized as a leading asset finance lawyer by legal directories Chambers USA, Legal 500 US and IFLR1000, with the first noting in 2018 that he is “highly knowledgeable about shipping company legal requirements across multiple areas, such as finance, asset sale and purchase, risk management and organization structure.”

Chambers Review

Provided by Chambers

Chambers Global Guide

General Business Law - Marshall Islands

Marshall Islands, expertise based abroad in USA
Individual Editorial

John Benson of Seward & Kissel in New York acts for financiers on a range of Marshall Islands corporate and shipping transactions. He is specialised in ABS deals and, alongside the Marshall Islands, also advises on Vanuatu shipping law.

View expertise based abroad table

Shipping - Liberia

Liberia, expertise based abroad in USA
Individual Editorial

John Benson advises on Liberian maritime law matters as part of his wider New York-based asset finance practice.

View expertise based abroad table

Strengths

Provided by Chambers

John Benson offers practical and efficient advice.

General Business Law respondent
Chambers Global Guide

Articles, highlights and press releases

3 items provided by Seward & Kissel LLP

Press Release

WFW advises Macquarie Bank on first of its kind shipping loan/lease securitisation for Fleetscape

Securitisation principles and certain structuring efficiencies were utilised to enable Fleetscape to offer sale-and-leaseback or unitranche financing on highly competitive terms.

Feb 15, 2021
Authored by Jim Bell, John Benson, Clemens C Hillmer, Lindsey Keeble, Dominic Pearson, Zara Hammersley, Jane Keith, CJ Chido, Elsa Savvatianou, Alex Clark
Press Release

WFW advises US maritime lender on US$56m senior loan facility for Seamax

Seamax operates a fleet of 12 modern, post-Panamax container ships and provides the world’s top shipping lines with over 1.2m deadweight tonnage in carrying capacity.

Jan 29, 2021
Authored by John Benson, Kavita Shah, Daniel Pilarski, John Man, Charlotte Humphreys
Press Release

WFW advises lenders on US$155m Tangguh LNG carrier refinancing

Both LNG Carriers Tangguh Batur and Tangguh Towuti have been recognised by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore’s Green Ship Programme for attaining Energy Efficiency Design Index certification.

Dec 1, 2020
Authored by John Benson, Gary Walsh, Emeline Yew, Laura Gerrard, Amarjit Syan, James Burgess, Jeremy Chiew, Rob McBride, Lydia Jones, C.J. Chido

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