Our Team

Jude has over 30 years as a corporate and project finance lawyer working on deals in the emerging markets. Most recently, Jude was the Chair, Africa Practice for Greenberg Traurig and before that the Chair, International Transaction Practice at Patton Boggs. Mr. Kearney has repeatedly been recognized as one of the leading lawyers in the emerging markets and has worked on projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Namibia, Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, Botswana, Cameroon, Benin, Gabon, Mozambique, Rwanda, Kenya, Liberia, South Africa as well as in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. Jude has advised and structured transactions for institutional investors, project developers, sovereigns, state-owned entities, and large corporates.

He was Managing Partner of Leboeuf Lamb Greene and MacRae in South Africa and lived in Johannesburg for five years. During Mr. Kearney’s tenure in South Africa, he led the firm to its 1st place ranking by Chambers and Partners in the region.

Jude was appointed by President Bill Clinton as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Services Industries and Trade Finance, and led many trade missions and government negotiations on behalf of Secretary Ron Brown in China, Japan, South Africa, Argentina, and Hong Kong.

Jude began his career as a corporate lawyer in New York for Skadden, Arps and later with Jones Day in Washington, D.C. Mr. Kearney also lived in Nigeria where he taught economics at the University of Lagos in the early 1980s.

Jude has a Bachelors in Economics from Harvard University and a Juris Doctored from Stanford Law School.