Sullivan & Worcester LLP

Sullivan’s award-winning London office is multi-disciplinary, advising clients in relation to trade and trade finance, commodity and export finance, banking and securitisation, securities, acquisition, project and real estate development finance, insurance, tax, compliance and regulatory issues, as well as all aspects of dispute resolution.

The team advises banks, financial institutions and funds in all aspects of their business. The firm also counts the key industry bodies in trade finance as its clients, including BAFT (the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade), ITFA (the International Trade and Forfaiting Association) and the ICC (the International Chamber of Commerce).

With London being the international centre for trade, export and commodities finance, a large proportion of the firm’s trade and export finance work is handled there. However, the London team advises clients in relation to their activities throughout the world, with a particular emphasis on emerging markets including in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

In addition to trade, export and commodities finance and related activity, the London office is an integral part of the international and cross-border finance practice offering sophisticated and highly customised solutions in cross-border debt and equity financing transactions. The team in London also works hand in hand with other key parts of the firm’s US practice, advising on transactions involving English law and New York law and supporting the needs of clients worldwide.

Sullivan was named ‘Best Trade or Supply Chain Finance Law Firm’ at the GTR Leaders in Trade Awards, 2026 and ’Best Law Firm – Trade and Commodities, 2026’ at the inaugural Trade, Treasury & Payments (TTP) Awards. The firm is ranked in Band 1 for Commodities: Trade Finance (UK-wide) by Chambers UK, 2026 and in Tier 1 for Trade Finance by The Legal 500 UK, 2026. It is also recognised as a ‘Spotlight firm’ in Chambers Global’s 2026 Africa-wide Banking & Finance table and for Banking Lending – Lender Side in the United Kingdom by the IFLR1000. Geoffrey Wynne was presented with the ’Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the RFIx Awards in 2024

The team’s commercially minded lawyers advise on:

• Trade and commodity financing: trade finance instruments and the application of uniform rules of practice, pre-export financings, prepayment transactions, borrowing base, reserve base lending, inventory financings and commodity repos.

• Receivables and payables financing: multi-jurisdictional supply chain finance programmes, invoice discounting, factoring and forfaiting transactions.

• Structured financing: asset acquisitions, securitisations, hedges, credit derivatives and synthetic securitisations.

• Digitalisation of trade finance, fintech and electronic banking: legal issues in relation to fintech, blockchain, electronic banking, digitalisation of trade finance and ePUs.

• Export Credit Agency and agency finance: short-, medium- and long-term ECA and multilateral finance.

• Development finance: funding from development finance institutions (DFIs), multilateral development banks (MDBs) and blended finance structures to finance adaptation, mitigation, green and sustainable projects in growth and emerging markets.

• Project finance: including adaptation and mitigation infrastructure projects.

• Insurance: advising on all aspects of commercial insurance arrangements, including those that support trade finance, from policy wording negotiations to contested claims.

• Trade disputes: representing clients in risk mitigation and dispute resolution, including arbitration, expert determination, court proceedings and alternative dispute resolution.

• Compliance and regulation: advising on regulatory (Basel III), bribery and corruption issues, sanctions, anti-money laundering and counter terrorism issues, particularly in connection with trade and export finance.

• Debt restructuring and distress: advising lenders and borrowers on the restructuring of sovereign and corporate credit facilities and on enforcement processes.

For more information, please visit www.sullivanlaw.com or LinkedIn.