Law firm Squire Patton Boggs has appointed Singapore-based Kate Sherrard as partner in its financial services practice, marking a further expansion of its commodities and shipping group.

Sherrard joins from Clifford Chance, where she was head of the firm’s Asia Pacific maritime and offshore group. She is accompanied by senior associate Bernice Chia, who also joins Squire Patton Boggs from Clifford Chance’s Singapore office.

Sherrard has previously held the position of partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in Singapore, before which she was a solicitor at Watson, Farley & Williams in London.

She specialises in structured finance transactions across the maritime and oil and gas sectors, and has advised on asset and project financing transactions including export credit agency matters.

According to Steve Mahon, global managing partner at Squire Patton Boggs, the appointment is part of efforts to create “one of the premier practices in the market” for commodities and shipping law.

Squire Patton Boggs’s commodities and shipping group was launched in November 2019 with a team hire from Reed Smith, and bolstered by six new hires last June.