Business Legal Services
Trade Finance
Service overview: Trade finance lawyers
- Trade finance concerns the supply of financial instruments to facilitate international trade and commerce. It helps importers and exporters to transact business through trade.
- Trade finance can help reduce the risks from global trade by reconciling the needs of an exporter and importer.
- It provides an exporter with payment according to an agreement while the importer might be extended credit to fulfil the order.
- As a trade finance law firm, we advise on all aspects of trade finance, including documentary and standby letters of credit, export and pre-export facilities, guarantee issuance facilities, carriage of goods’ contracts and shipping terms, receivables’ financing, factoring and discounting arrangements.
- Key issues with trade finance include currency fluctuations, political instability, non-payment and creditworthiness.
Experts in trade finance law
Our team can assist you across all areas of corporate law, including:
Finding the right legal partner
Why work with Harper James
Choose a legal partner you can trust: we’ll help protect your goals, your business and your people so you can move forward with confidence and focus on growing your business.
Affordable, transparent and predictable pricing
Clear itemised invoices, subscription plans with up to 50% discount, and fixed fee products help you plan and manage legal spend – with no nasty surprises.
Proven track record and measurable results
We’ve supported over 8,000 businesses since 2014, with an ‘Excellent’ rating on Trustpilot and a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 60+ from monthly client surveys.
Straight-talking, responsive advice
We’re here to make things easier, not add complexity. That means fast response times, practical expert legal advice delivered in plain English, and dedicated client service and account management support.
Risk and compliance assured
We’re an SRA regulated firm, but more importantly, we build quality, data, and compliance best practice into everything we do.
Appointing a legal partner is a big decision. That’s why we’re open about our values, culture and model, so you can see what makes us tick. And because a productive partnership starts with understanding, we always begin with a conversation – listening to your goals, pressures and plans, then tailoring our support to fit.
What we do: Trade finance legal advice
We provide advice to banks, financial institutions, traders, brokers, ship owners, insurers, producers and industrial end-users on all aspects of the financing of trade. Depending on your needs, we can advise on bilateral transactions, taking participations, syndicated financings and arrangements to transfer credit risk.
Our lawyers can assist you with your requirements and walk you through these processes to guarantee a smooth transaction. Some of the typical documents, agreements and services we would help your business with include:
- lending lines of credit
- standby letters of credit
- export and pre-export facilities
- carriage of goods’ contracts
- factoring and discounting arrangements
- export credit or working capital
- shipping terms
Our trade finance solicitors will also work closely with our corporate, asset finance and tax teams to cover all aspects of your deal, so legal work is seamlessly undertaken throughout your entire transaction.
Who we help
We regularly give expert legal advice on trade finance throughout all stages of a transaction to a wide range of clients, including:
- banks
- traders
- brokers
- ship owners
- insurers
This expert advice includes our considerable experience in advising on credit and facility documents, preparation and negotiation of inter-creditor deeds and the structuring of deals.
Testimonials
What our clients say
Why choose our finance and investment solicitors?
Our finance solicitors have all been recruited from top 100 UK law firms or from large international businesses. They each have more than 10 years post-qualifying experience. Find out more about our trade finance solicitors here:
Pricing and service plans
Legal support designed
to fit your business needs
Our three transparent service plans are designed to give you the widest possible access to high-quality legal advice, whatever the size and nature of your business:
Engage
Flexible access to senior solicitors at highly competitive rates
An alternative to our subscription plans, offering access to full service legal expertise on a project-by-project basis.
Enable
Purpose built legal support for start-ups and smaller businesses
Monthly subscription plan for £239 per month, with £159 monthly credit and access to all legal services at 50% discount on our Standard Rates.
Extend
Comprehensive legal partnership for established businesses
Fully account managed and scalable annual subscription plan with support from a curated team of partners and senior solicitors, with up to 33% discount on our Standard Rates.
