Mayer Brown has appointed James Clarke as a partner in its London Finance practice, further strengthening the firm’s capabilities across emerging markets, energy, export and agency finance, and structured commodity finance.
Clarke joins Mayer Brown from Baker McKenzie.
His practice focuses on financing transactions across emerging markets, with particular experience in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and other developing markets.
Clarke advises across export and agency finance as well as structured commodity finance, including pre-export financings, prepayment transactions, and borrowing base facilities.
He also has substantial experience with receivables financing structures, including factoring, invoice discounting, and supply chain finance.
His client base spans commercial banks, multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, private credit funds, export credit agencies, and commodity traders.
Those relationships position Clarke across several parts of the capital ecosystem financing major projects, commodities, trade flows, and businesses in emerging economies.
Mayer Brown sees particular value in Clarke’s experience as export and agency finance and commodity finance become increasingly interconnected.
These transactions can involve combinations of conventional bank lending, export credit support, development finance, commodity-backed structures, and private capital.
Clarke’s appointment also adds further depth to Mayer Brown’s existing emerging markets loans practice.
The firm plans to use his experience to expand its work involving energy finance, trade finance, structured commodity transactions, and private credit across multiple jurisdictions.
The appointment reflects growing demand for sophisticated financing structures in emerging markets, where borrowers and investors may need to combine multiple sources of capital and risk-mitigation tools in a single transaction.
Export credit agencies and development finance institutions can play particularly important roles in these markets by supporting financing that commercial lenders may otherwise find difficult to provide on their own.
Clarke’s work with private credit funds also gives Mayer Brown additional capabilities as alternative lenders continue expanding into areas traditionally dominated by banks.
His arrival continues a broader period of investment in Mayer Brown’s London Finance & Banking practice.
Recent additions include leveraged finance partners David Miles, Philip Butler, and Sarah Goodwin; structured finance partners Chris McGarry and Adam Farrell; and corporate trustee partner Kevin Ng.
The series of appointments is designed to deepen Mayer Brown’s capabilities across several financing disciplines while creating greater opportunities for collaboration on complex cross-border transactions.
KEY QUOTES:
“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.”
Ash McDermott, Partner at Mayer Brown
“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.”
James Clarke, Partner at Mayer Brown
“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.”
Alex Dell, Global Co-Head of Banking & Finance at Mayer Brown
