Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has strengthened its marine and international trade practice with the addition of commodities trade finance specialist Jameel Tarmohamed, who joins the firm as a partner, based in the firm’s London office.

Tarmohamed specialises in structured commodities trade finance. His experience includes advising banks, investors, corporates and traders – across the commodities supply chain – in many emerging jurisdictions in addition to the main commodity trading hubs of London, Switzerland, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong. His expertise covers all forms of structured trade and commodity financings, including pre-export, pre-payment, inventory, limited recourse, receivables financings and repo and true sale transactions. He joins the firm from HFW.

“Our ambition is to create a ‘one-stop-shop’ for our clients in the commodities space, where we’re already known for the strength of our disputes practice,” said Alex Davis, head of marine and international trade, Stephenson Harwood. “Jameel’s arrival is an important step in achieving that ambition. His expertise complements that of the existing team, which was most recently bolstered by the addition of Emma Skakle as partner last August.

“We know that this is an area of significant interest among our existing and prospective clients, and the addition of Jameel allows us to offer clients a more streamlined, efficient service. With the consolidation we’ve seen within the legal services market, this is a prime time for us to be offering clients a complete, bespoke service – focused on an industry sector, rather than a legal discipline.”

The Stephenson Harwood marine and international trade practice offers services to clients in the shipping, insurance, offshore and commodity sectors. Clients include many of the world’s largest shipowners, shipyards, major ship finance banks, marine insurers and IG P&I clubs, energy services companies, oil and gas companies and commodities traders.