John Pate has been a member of De Sola Pate & Brown since 1981 where he chairs the international corporate and business transactions practice. His principal areas of expertise are in negotiating international business transactions, commercial and corporate law, foreign investment, licensing, franchising, international banking, project finance, commercial aviation and secured transactions.

John is the liaison of the firm with the International Business Law Consortium (IBLC) and L2B Aviation Group, two of the law firm networks of which De Sola Pate & Brown is a member.

John is registered as an International Advisor in Corporate Finance with the Bar Association of Caracas. He is admitted to practice in Massachusetts (1969) and before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the U.S. Court of International Trade.

● Education : John received an A.B. from Brown University (1966) and his J.D. from Boston University (1969). He has also received an M.A. and an M.A.L.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (1971 and 1972, respectively).

● Professional Affiliations: John is a member of the Bar of Massachusetts. He is active in the International (in which he is Vice Chair of the Latin American and Caribbean Law Committee) and Business Law Sections of the American Bar Association. He is also a member of the Inter-American Bar Association, the American Society of International Law (in which he is Corresponding Editor of International Legal Materials), the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, the Latin American Studies Association, and the Advisory Committee of the Tulane Latin American Law Institute. John is a Fellow of the Center for International Legal Studies (Salzburg, Austria), a Director of the Entrepreneurial Center for Conciliation and Arbitration – CEDCA, Director and Secretary of the Venezuelan-American Friendship Association - AVAA, Director of the Centro Venezolano Americano – CVA, a member of the Legal Affairs Committee of VenAmCham, and Director and Secretary of the Valle Arriba Golf Club.

● Previous Affiliations (in Caracas): Before joining the firm John was a professor of International Business and Latin American Integration at the Institute for Higher Administration Studies (Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración – IESA, 1974-1977), manager of the Andean Integration Department at KPMG (previously Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., from 1977-1978), and director of GRANLAW Consultores (1978-1981).

● Publications : Since the 1970’s John has authored a number of articles and given conferences mainly on Venezuelan and Andean business topics. Among some of his more recent publications are the following: “Venezuela: The Law on Secured Transactions” (co-author), in Secured Transactions in International Practice (Oceana) and as “Venezuela: Normas Sobre Transacciones con Garantía” en Trabajos Jurídicos (VenAmCham, Vol. I); “Venezuela: Real Property Security” (co-author) in Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business, 2006 (Kluwer); chapters on Venezuela in Aircraft Finance: Registration, Security and Enforcement, and in Aircraft Liens and Detention Rights (Sweet & Maxwell); and the Venezuelan section in “International Legal Developments in Review: 2005” in The International Lawyer. He is also a regular contributor to Latin American Legal Developments, a monthly electronic newsletter published by the Latin American and Caribbean Law Committee of the Section of International Law of the American Bar Association.

● Languages: English and Spanish.