Best Law Firm in Trade Finance: Denton Wilde Sapte

Runner-up: Norton Rose
Commended: Clifford Chance
2007 Winner: Denton Wilde Sapte

Is there no stopping Denton Wilde Sapte? For the fifth year running – indeed, since the Award’s inception – Dentons has scooped the top prize for the Best Law Firm in Trade Finance in the TFR Awards.

Clearly, Dentons must be doing something consistently right to enjoy such support. “It’s about looking not just at the lender and borrower, but asking, ‘does this deal work?’ Then documenting it so the financing works,” advises Geoff Wynne, Partner and Head of the Commodity Trade Finance Practice at Denton Wilde Sapte.

“It’s not just about lots of security; it’s about looking at the logistics of the deal. We understand all the parties that are likely to be in the deal,” says Wynne. The experience of Wynne and his team ensures that every aspect of a nascent deal is examined early on – aspects that less experienced lawyers may overlook or assume are okay.

In common with its peers in trade finance, of course, Dentons has benefited from the credit crunch – the reduced liquidity in the banking sector leading to an increase in margins and, above all, a return to structure and proper risk management on the part of lenders.

Suddenly, banks started to push ahead on deals that could be understood and where the structure made sense, says Wynne. This was then turned into documentation that gave the lenders the protection that they should always have sought – not just security, but seeing the whole logistics of the transaction from start to finish. For example, looking at who was producing, who was exporting and who was buying, and linking it all together.

The lax practices in the years leading up to the credit crunch were a source of exasperation for Wynne. If some of the banks’ investments in the sub-prime mortgage securities that caused the credit crunch were subject to the same kind of scrutiny that trade deals are, the credit crunch might never have happened.

Structured trade finance today, however, now scores with bank credit committees because of the level of risk management behind such deals – with monitoring, structuring and security, and everything signed off by the lawyers, as well as a sizeable post-credit-crunch margin.

Wynne is unable to discuss his latest successful deals, even when he’s pitching for business. But Dentons tries to be everywhere there’s a big deal. “We have been doing some very interesting deals in the Far East, particularly Deutsche Bank deals in metals; some very good stuff in Ukraine, where we have a lot of expertise now in the structuring and the problems that can arise. My favourite, invariably, is the Cocobod deal,” says Wynne.

This was the deal that, in many ways, started structured trade some 15 years ago and it has led the way with an impeccable performance and an understanding by the borrower of what the banks’ minimum needs are. Even when margins were low, there was still some structure about the deal to justify them, says Wynne.

With structure back in fashion, Wynne expects to be busy for the foreseeable future. “I guess there will be more rather than fewer deals, unless there is a huge world recession,” he says. Even then, of course, there will always be a flow of goods that will require finance. Dentons will be there to provide the legal services to ensure such deals remain watertight.

Rather than hiring from outside, Wynne and his team of three other partners – Nick Grandage, Simon Cook and Jonathan Solomon – prefer to train ambitious juniors. Solomon and Cook are cases in point: each joined in 1996 as a trainee and became partners in 2006.

Today, trade finance expertise in English law is now available in pretty much all of Dentons’ overseas offices, while locally qualified lawyers are taught to understand the requirements of trade finance documents. And while it covers CIS via offices in Moscow, Almaty and Tashkent, it can also cover Francophone Africa via its offices in Paris and network of associate offices across Africa.

“It’s not just about lots of security; it’s about looking at the logistics of the deal. We understand all the parties that are likely to be in the deal and what they need to do to make the financing work.”

Geoffrey Wynne, Denton Wilde Sapte