Omar Al-Ali has left Simmons & Simmons to join Reed Smith as a partner in its energy and natural resources group in London.

Al-Ali specialises in structured trade and commodities finance. His experience includes advising on borrowing base, pre-export and prepayment financing, receivables financing structures and commodities repos, as well as bilateral loan and letter of credit facilities, payment instruments, participation structures and the securitisation of receivables purchase arrangements.

He was a banking and finance partner at Simmons & Simmons for three and a half years. Prior to that, he worked for Linklaters for almost 12 years.

In a statement, Al-Ali says Reed Smith was “a natural fit for the expansion of my practice” and a firm which would “provide excellent support and a strong network from which to further service my clients”.

Praj Samant, global chair of Reed Smith’s energy and natural resources group, adds: “The addition of Omar further cements our reputation as a go-to international structured trade and commodities finance practice. Omar is a talented lawyer with strong client relationships and we’re thrilled to have him on board.”

Omar will join a global practice consisting of partners Jonathan Solomon in London, Mike Brown and Matthew Petrillo in Chicago and Jessica Kenworthy in Singapore