Global law firm Reed Smith today announced the relocation of Jessica Kenworthy, one of its senior trade finance lawyers, from London to the firm’s Singapore office.

Jessica (senior associate) joined Reed Smith with Jonathan Solomon (partner) from Dentons in 2013 in a move which expanded and enhanced the existing trade finance capabilities at Reed Smith. Jessica has previously worked with Jonathan in Singapore and advises on a wide range of commodity finance related transactions, in particular acting for lenders, trading houses and multilaterals.

Jessica’s past experience in working in Singapore means she has a particular focus on transactions in South East Asia (notably Indonesia), China and Mongolia.

Reed Smith has significantly expanded its finance capabilities in the past two years, with the appointment of eight new partners and the launch of three new offices (in Singapore, Houston and Kazakhstan).

One of the major drivers for Reed Smith’s launch in Singapore was the burgeoning business activities of its major institutional clients in the energy and natural resources sector. In response to this local demand, the firm opened its office in 2012 and deployed several lawyers from its market-leading commodities team in London to Singapore. As part of this effort, Philip Antcliffe (commodities partner) rejoined the firm as partner following his move to Citigroup in 2011.

Jonathan Solomon, Reed Smith trade finance partner based in London commented:
“Jessica’s relocation to Singapore will boost our existing trade and commodity finance capabilities in the region by enabling us to not only have additional on the ground structured trade finance expertise but will also provide us with an increased ability to service client requirements on an almost 24 hour basis in conjunction with our London trade finance group.”

Philip Antcliffe, Reed Smith commodities partner based in Singapore added:
“We are continuing to see increased demand for trade and commodity finance advice as trading and producer/marketer businesses look to support their clients more and more with financial services. Jessica’s experience of these products and the trade finance banking market means we are even better placed to support clients.”

Reed Smith’s trade and commodity finance practice provides a full-service offering as part of the larger Energy & Natural Resources Group (a multidisciplinary group combining regulatory, transactional and litigation disciplines).

About other partners to recently join Reed Smith

In addition to Jonathan and Jessica’s recent arrival, the team has been joined by:

• Claude Brown – structured finance and derivatives partner from Clifford Chance.
• Rashpaul Bahia – energy and commodities derivatives partner from McDermott Will & Emery.
• Peter Zaman – climate change, carbon trading and finance partner from Clifford Chance.
• Tamara Box, Helena Nathanson and Nick Stainthorpe – structured finance partners. Both Tamara and Helena joined the firm from Berwin Leighton Paisner and Nick joined from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
• Chris Borg – financial regulatory and commodity trading partner from SNR Denton.

Reed Smith is a global law firm, with 25 offices and more than 1,800 lawyers in offices across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States.

For further information please visit www.reedsmith.com or contact Jeyda Star (Senior PR & Communications Manager EME) on +44 (0)20 3116 2571.