Mayer Brown has hired Michelle Herman, a structured finance lawyer, for its global trade finance practice in New York. According to the firm, she advises borrowers and lenders on trade receivables, commercial loans and instalment sales contracts. Her particular strength is trade receivables securitisations, along with the “bankruptcy, accounting and commercial considerations that arise in sophisticated financing structures.”
She comes from Jones Day, where she had worked since mid-2010, and was earlier an associate at Weil Gotshal & Manges and Dewey Ballantine.
Zachary Carrier, a Mayer Brown trade finance partner, said the firm has been “across the table from Michelle on many trade-related financings for more than a decade.” He called her “a highly sophisticated structured finance lawyer.”
Mayer Brown has a large trade finance practice with a significant presence in Singapore and London. A month earlier it added James Clarke, a trade and export finance lawyer formerly at Baker McKenzie, to its London team.
Digital Trade Outlook’s View: Law Firms Follow the Structured Market
Two hires in two cities within a month suggest steady demand for legal support on trade assets. That matches the widening trade finance gap and the growing focus on structured trade finance, where how an asset is packaged decides who can fund it.
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