Claude Brown is part of the firm’s global environmental, social and governance (ESG) practice. Claude has a particular focus on the environmental and social aspects of ESG.
Claude is recognised as one of the world’s leading legal experts in weather risk management, adaptive finance, green finance and the voluntary carbon markets. He has been involved in the design and implementation of carbon registries, as well as trading platforms. He has extensive experience of transactions using products to mitigate the effect of drought on the agricultural economies of Malawi and Ethiopia, as well as transactions to assist in sustainable energy generation in South America and Asia. He regularly advises on adaptive finance products to assist developing economies generate resilience in the efforts to address climate change in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. He has worked on credit risk mitigants for Multilateral Development Banks to free up their balance sheets in order to provide more financing within LDCs and LMICs, as well as assisting commercial banks in developing sustainable finance strategies and products.
He is also very active in the social financing arena, advising Multilateral Development Banks and Supranational organisations on the financing of educational projects in the developing world. He also works with various NGOs and philanthropic foundations to provide innovative financing and credit risk mitigation structures for the funding of their global medical and microfinancing activities.
He is currently working with several clients in developing their ESG strategies in light of the EU's Green Deal as well as adherence to a number of voluntary non-financial disclosure projects.
Claude is a leading member of the firm’s global derivatives practice and brings more than 26 years’ experience in the global derivatives markets, both as a lawyer and as a banker. He practices in all aspects of derivatives, both OTC and exchange traded. He advises banks, funds and corporates on the structuring, documentation and regulation of interest rate, FX, credit, equity, commodity and exotic derivatives (including weather, catastrophe and economic variables).
Claude also has an active practice in advising a range of clients on prime brokerage and related transactions, debt trading and market infrastructure issues. He is regularly involved in helping clients develop capital and regulatory efficient structures, as well as devising risk-mitigation techniques to assist in minimizing counterparty and market risk in complex and novel structures. As a recognized leading practitioner in derivative product development, he is frequently retained by clients to assist them in devising and developing new products both for their own use and as part of their client offerings. As a result, he has been involved in a number of market “firsts,” including the first weather derivative transaction in Europe, the first European and Australian synthetic securitizations, the first project finance synthetic securitization, the first sports derivatives in the UK, the first international registry for voluntary compliance emission allowances, and the first FX hedge for a securitization to comply with the new Russian derivatives laws. During his career he has worked on the derivative aspects of a number of landmark deals, including the financing of the Eurotunnel project, the construction of the London Olympic Village, the UK Thameslink railway line and rolling stock, the securitization of Canary Wharf, the UK Government’s Asset Protection Scheme, the restructuring of Russian Soviet era debt, the Russian and Asia financial crises, and the EBRDs derivative immunization program.
He has been a ranked lawyer in both Chambers and Legal 500 for more than 15 years. Chambers UK 2021 describes Claude as having “considerable experience providing regulatory advice on commodity and energy derivatives matters.”
‘Approachable, knowledgeable, articulate in a way that client’s understand and experienced. Claude Brown stands out.’ – Legal 500, Derivatives and structured products, 2022
