Our client is seeking an associate to join its market-leading Structured Trade & Commodity Finance practice in London. The team advises on sophisticated financing arrangements across the commodities, energy, and natural resources sectors, acting for a broad mix of international banks, trading houses, commodity producers, private credit providers, and investment funds.
The practice is recognised for handling complex cross-border matters involving physical commodities, structured lending, collateral arrangements, and trading documentation across multiple jurisdictions.
The Opportunity
The successful candidate will work on a wide range of structured commodity and trade finance transactions, supporting clients operating across regions including Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and North America.
The role offers exposure to both financing and commercial trading arrangements, with matters frequently involving oil & gas, LNG, metals, mining, bulk commodities, and wider energy transition assets.
Lawyers within the team regularly advise on:
- Borrowing base and reserve-backed lending facilities
- Pre-export finance and structured prepayment arrangements
- Inventory-backed financings and warehouse monetisation structures
- Receivables purchase and trade-related working capital facilities
- Repo and title transfer financing structures
- Commodity-linked margin loans and derivative-supported financings
- Syndicated and club lending transactions
- Cross-border security and collateral packages involving multiple jurisdictions
In addition to financing work, the team also supports clients on the commercial side of physical trading and commodity supply arrangements, including:
- LNG sale and purchase agreements
- Crude oil and refined products trading documentation
- Metals and minerals offtake contracts
- Long-term supply, marketing, and distribution arrangements
- Storage, warehousing, and logistics agreements
- Master trading terms and commodity framework documentation
Candidate Profile
Our client is interested in speaking with lawyers who have experience within structured trade finance, commodity finance, banking, leveraged finance, or broader cross-border financing transactions.
Candidates are likely to demonstrate:
- Strong technical drafting and transactional skills
- Experience handling complex financing or security structures
- Familiarity with commodities, trade flows, or energy-related transactions
- An ability to manage multiple matters within fast-moving transactional environments
- Commercial awareness and strong stakeholder management capability
- England & Wales qualification or another common law qualification, with appropriate UK market experience
- Candidates should have experience from leading UK law firms (City, Magic or Silver circle) or US law firms
Exposure to structured commodity finance, receivables finance, inventory-backed lending, trade finance documentation, or commodity-linked financings would be particularly advantageous.
Rutherford is a leading legal recruiter that also works closely with tier one sponsors, buyside firms and investment banks for in-house roles. Please get in contact if you would like to be alerted to the most exciting Counsel opportunities.
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Job Reference: NWAC32588
Structured Trade Finance, Commodity Finance, Energy Finance, Trade Finance Lawyer, Structured Finance, Banking & Finance, Borrowing Base Facilities, Pre-Export Finance, Inventory Monetisation, Receivables Finance, Repo Structures, LNG, Oil & Gas, Metals & Mining, Commodity Trading, Cross-Border Finance, Syndicated Lending, Commodity-Backed Lending, Security Structures, London Legal Jobs, Commodity Finance Associate
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