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Hill Dickinson and SMB Law Geneva enter into collaboration agreement

Hill Dickinson and SMB Law Geneva enter into collaboration agreement

Commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has entered into a collaboration agreement with boutique law firm SMB Law in Geneva, Switzerland.

The agreement aims to formalise and build upon a period of long-time informal cooperation between the two firms, which has seen them join forces and cross-refer international work for a growing number of clients across many jurisdictions.

Siassi McCunn Bussard Avocats & Solicitors (SMB Law) is a leading one-stop boutique Swiss and international law firm specialising in handling complex Swiss, English and international advisory, dispute resolution, mediation, judicial and arbitration matters. 

By working in synergy with Hill Dickinson, SMB Law will help provide local representation to a growing roster of Hill Dickinson’s Switzerland-based clients who operate primarily in key areas of international trade (energy and soft commodities), trade finance, insurance and shipping. 

Hill Dickinson Commodities and Trade Finance team partner Mark Aspinall said: 

“Geneva has always been one of the main pillars of our commodities and trade finance practices and, having worked with Cyrus previously, I am excited about joining forces once again which I can only see as a wonderful collaborative opportunity for both our respective firms.”

Cyrus Siassi, one of the founding partners of SMB Law, added: 

“Our permanent objective being to better serve our clients, the main purpose of the collaboration consists in sharing our specific expertise and resources for offering to our clients a one-stop local and global approach, both in respect of their advisory and [pre] contentious required legal and compliance services.” 
 

Commodities

We offer specialist legal advice combined with a real understanding of clients’ commercial needs. If you are a trader, charterer, operator, end-user, insurer, financing bank, borrower or trade association, our commodities team should be your first port of call. 

How we can advise you

We are market leaders in what we do, acting in contentious and non-contentious matters arising from the international sale, purchase, financing (including hedging), storage and transportation of commodities.   
We advise on matters relating to soft and hard commodities and all aspects of energy. Our experience extends to the broadest spectrum of goods traded across the world including: soft and agricultural products (corn, wheat, soybeans, sunflowerseeds, fertilisers, sugar, cotton, coffee, cocoa, vegetable oils); base metals (including concentrates), ores and steel (including finished products and recycled metals); and energy products (including crude oil, refined products, ethanol, biofuels, coal, power, gas, LNG and LPG).
 
We have a well-recognised structured trade finance practice that assists both lenders and borrowers with the whole range of transactions, including: bilateral and syndicated facilities; pre-finance; repos; borrowing base finance; supply chain; receivables finance; payables financing; forfaiting and factoring. Our expertise covers all the main trade finance instruments: security documentation; documentary credits (including structured letters of credit); standby credits and guarantees (UCP, ISBP, URDG); bills of exchange and promissory notes.

We have a comprehensive knowledge of trade associations’ standard forms, rules and practices and extensive experience of disputes before all English courts, international arbitration, mediation and other ADR options. We handle disputes before trade associations such as ICA, SAL, RSA, GAFTA, FOSFA, LME and FCC, as well as international arbitration fora such as the ICC, LCIA, SIAC, HKIAC and UNCITRAL. We also manage arbitrations before the LMAA and on ad hoc terms. This enables us to offer clients an unparalleled cross-border service. We are rightly recognised as a top tier commodities practice in the City of London by the legal directories and by our peers. 
 
Our commodities team is based across our City of London, Piraeus, Hong Kong and Singapore offices.