Mayer Brown further strengthens emerging markets finance capability with partner appointment James Clarke

London - Mayer Brown announced today that James Clarke has joined the firm as a partner in its Finance practice in London, adding further depth to its emerging markets finance team and supporting the continued growth of the firm's energy, export and agency and trade finance offering.

James joins from Baker McKenzie. His emerging markets focused practice includes export and agency finance and structured commodity finance, including pre-export finance, prepayment deals and borrowing base facilities. He also has experience in receivables financing, including factoring, invoice discounting, and supply chain finance. He regularly advises commercial banks, multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, private credit funds, export credit agencies and commodity traders on high-value, multi-jurisdictional transactions across sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and other emerging markets.

Partner Ash McDermott commented: "Export and agency finance and commodity finance have converged in recent years. There are few senior lawyers in the market who know both sectors as well as James and we are delighted to welcome him to Mayer Brown. James bolsters our existing top tier emerging markets loans practice and his arrival highlights how important this practice is to Mayer Brown."

James said, "Mayer Brown's international reach and its clients' appetite for sophisticated trade and commodity finance solutions make this an incredibly exciting opportunity. The firm's ambitions in emerging markets and energy finance make this a natural next step for my practice, and I look forward to building on the momentum already established by the team."

Alex Dell, Global Co-Head of Mayer Brown's Banking & Finance practice said: "James brings a wealth of experience across trade and export finance, structured commodity finance, and emerging markets private credit. His client relationships and track record on award-winning transactions will be a fantastic addition to our team, and I look forward to working alongside him as we continue to grow our emerging markets and energy finance offering."

James' appointment continues Mayer Brown's London Finance & Banking expansion, following the arrivals this year and last of Leveraged Finance partners David Miles, Philip Butler and Sarah Goodwin, Structured Finance partners Chris McGarry and Adam Farrell, and Corporate Trustee partner Kevin Ng.