Robert Tufigno. Source: https://gtg.com.mt/team-members/robert-tufigno/
University of Malta. Photo: de:Benutzer:Dr.Pressure, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Uni-20malta.jpg)
University of Malta. Photo: de:Benutzer:Dr.Pressure, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Uni-20malta.jpg)
Robert Tufigno was born on 5 March 1957 in Sliema, Malta. Sliema is a coastal town on the northeastern side of Malta's main island, facing Valletta across Marsamxett Harbour. Malta was then a British colony, and it did not become independent until 1964.
Tufigno graduated as a lawyer from the University of Malta in 1981 and holds a Doctor of Laws degree from the same institution. He was also admitted to the Maltese Bar.
The University of Malta traces its origins to the Collegium Melitense, a Jesuit college founded in Valletta on 12 November 1592. After the Jesuits were expelled in 1768, Grand Master Pinto reorganised the college as the Pubblica Università di Studi Generali in 1769, the institution from which the modern university developed. The Holy See's authorisation for the university named theology, jurisprudence and medicine as its three professional courses, which places law among the university's earliest professional disciplines.
The institution was known as the Royal University of Malta from 1937 to 1974. Its Valletta campus occupies the Old University Building, the purpose-built college completed between 1595 and 1597, while its Msida campus, where most academic departments are located, received its foundation stone in September 1964.
Tufigno's documented career is in law, centred on business and commercial practice in Valletta. He worked as a partner at Hugh Peralta & Associates, a Valletta firm that describes itself as primarily a commercial law practice for business clients. Its team of lawyers each specialise in a particular field, and its clients have included international banks, airlines and multinational corporate groups.
He is also associated with GTG Advocates, a firm that also appears under the name Gatt Tufigno Gauci Advocates. At GTG he became a partner who headed the Shipping department, specialising in ship registration and finance. He has advised international banks and financial institutions on the registration of statutory mortgages and on the financing of Maltese-flagged vessels, and he has advised Maltese and foreign shipowners on mortgages, financing and registration under the Maltese flag. His shipping work extends to the formation of shipping companies, ship sale and purchase agreements, charter contracts, carriage of goods by sea and marine insurance.
Tufigno's practice also covers employment law, civil litigation and dispute resolution. He is documented as a senior lecturer in international commercial arbitration, and at GTG he is also described as a consultant, with the firm crediting him with more than forty years of professional experience.
He has also held public appointments. He has led several state entities, including the Malta Housing Authority, which was established by Act XV of 1976 to promote and finance housing development and homeownership in Malta. He has also led the Employment and Training Corporation, a Maltese public body concerned with employment and training, and he served on the national Planning Appeals Board, which hears appeals in Malta's planning system.
Tufigno is a member of the Malta Chamber of Advocates, the professional body of advocates practising in Malta. He is also a member of the International Bar Association, a London-based organisation founded in 1947 that brings together bar associations, law societies and individual lawyers from many countries.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a London-based professional body for arbitration practitioners. He is also a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR, a body within the International Chamber of Commerce that works on international arbitration and alternative dispute resolution.
Quotes from others about the person
A client quoted on the GTG Legal website, in connection with the Legal 500 ranking, described Tufigno as one of the most prominent lawyers in Malta, with extensive experience and good value for money.
