GTR is proud to announce the results of its Best Law Firm readers’ poll.

 

Dentons has been crowned best law firm in trade finance by GTR readers. Formed from the merger of SNR Denton (which previously won the award for a number of years running), Salans and Frasner Milner Casgrain (FMC) in early 2013, Dentons hopes to gain a more global coverage in the near future.

“We are delighted to receive this award again and are grateful to our clients for their continuing support and confidence in our team,” says Veronika Koroleva, a partner at the firm.

“We have a great team which continues to be the largest dedicated trade finance practice in the market with partners and assistants based both in London and Singapore, the key centres for the market. We have extensive market knowledge and experience in the wide range of trade finance structures and emerging market geographies.”

In 2012, SNR Denton advised on transactions as far afield as Honduras and Guatemala in Latin America, throughout Africa and the Middle East to the CIS and India, Mongolia and the rest of Southeast Asia. The firm advised parties in the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) annual facility, which reached US$1.5bn at a time when US dollar funding was difficult to secure, earning an award in GTR’s Best Deals of 2012.

The newly-formed Dentons has no headquarters so as to avoid a dominant national culture, and capitalises on the diverse backgrounds of 2,500 lawyers in civil law, English common law and US common law. It has 79 locations in 52 countries across Africa, Asia Pacific, Canada, Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East, the UK and the US, and is set to become the seventh-largest law firm in the world by number of lawyers and professionals.

Simon Cook, head of the trade finance practice, tells GTR: “We look forward to new and exciting opportunities that the [new merger] will bring to us. We will acquire coverage throughout Europe and will increase the number of experienced people on the ground in the CIS to make us one of the strongest firms in the region as well as enrich our oil and gas and minerals and mining experience with the addition of the offices in Canada.”

Matthew Cox, who leads the trade finance offering in Singapore, adds: “The market continues to be challenging – the eurozone crisis has flared up again, the regulations and sanctions are tightening their grip, the market players are changing; all of this makes it all the more interesting to work in this field and bring transactions to close. We have a vibrant and busy practice and exciting plans to grow it in the next year.”

The top 10 law firms in trade finance are:
1 Dentons
2 Norton Rose
3 Hogan Lovells
4 White & Case
5 Thomas Cooper
6 Clyde & Co
7 Allen & Overy
8 DLA Piper
9 Reed Smith
10 WFW