The trade finance team at Baker McKenzie is 'always accessible and understands the commercial issues'. The firm combines expertise in traditional trade financing options with experience in highly structured deals, and frequently acts for financial institutions, corporates, and government entities in financings in the EMEA and CIS Regions, as well as Latin America. Much of its work focuses on commodities, oil and gas, and infrastructure projects, in which the London group handles multi-sourced export financings, including those backed by DFIs and export credit agencies. Practice head Luka Lightfoot, who focuses heavily on cross-border export and project finance, and structured trade finance, is 'technically sound and a great negotiator'. He leads the practice with structured finance specialist Jeremy Levy. Lightfoot recently acted for a global financial institution on a deal in Tanzania backed by UK Export Finance. Nick Tostivin joined Pinsent Masons LLP.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Luka Lightfoot he really knows his stuff. He is technically sound and a great negotiator. ’
‘Quality services and understanding of trade finance. The lawyers were always accessible, and they understood the commercial issues that required navigating in addition to the legal issues.’
Key clients
- African Export-Import Bank
- Ahli United Bank
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch International
- BNP Paribas
- Citibank
- Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank
- Mizuho Bank, Ltd.
- MUFG Bank
- Natixis
- SMBC
- KFW IPEX-BANK GMBH
- Société Générale
- Standard Chartered Bank (SCB)
- ZCCM Investments Holdings Plc
Work highlights
- Acted for ZCCM Investments Holdings Plc, an investment holdings company majority-owned by the Zambian government, and its wholly-owned subsidiary Mopani Copper Mine Plc in connection with the refinancing of MCM by ZCCM and the existing senior creditors of MCM, namely Glencore International AG and Carlisa Investments Corp.
- Acted for Citibank and UK Export Finance (UKEF) in connection with a UKEF-covered and commercial facilities to the Ministry of Finance in the Republic of Tanzania.
Lawyers
Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Luka Lightfoot, Jeremy Levy