Floyd Zadkovich advises, supports and represents market leaders in a variety of sectors on all aspects of transactions and projects.
Typically, our clients involve us at an early stage for direction and advice on the legal, regulatory and contractual side of a deal or project. We collaborate with our clients to clearly plan out and execute the required contractual structure for the commercial, financial and technical requirements.
We are also pleased to support clients on a more ad hoc basis where, for example, there has been an unexpected development on a deal or there is increased time pressure.
With our unique blend of in-house and private practice experience across a wide spectrum of jurisdictions within a tight-knit team, we are well placed to provide a bespoke service to our clients’ specific requirements and work closely with our clients in a broad range of transactions and projects.
Shipping carries the world of commodity trading – literally and figuratively. Our market experience in this area allows us to advise clients in respect of all documents and contracts required in the business.
We have extensive experience of charterparty negotiations and drafting. We perform various roles in the charterparty process – from leading negotiations with the counterparty and the drafting exercise to advising behind the scene on specific clauses. We have been involved in countless long-term and short-term charter negotiations both from an in-house and a private practice perspective and consider ourselves well-placed to work efficiently with our clients to finalise the contracts accurately and promptly.
We also act on both sides of newbuild transactions: both for major shipyards and for purchasing vessel owners. We advise buyers during the transaction period and have acted for buyers in respect of warranty claims following delivery.
In the closely related Logistics & Transport field, we regularly advise operators, freight forwarders, charterers, owners, tug and barge companies and various other logistics players on various types of contracts including service contracts, shipping agency contracts, charterparties, long-term contracts, standard terms for bills of lading, booking verbiage, e-commerce terms, and other freight contracts.
Back to topWe support the trading, operations and shipping teams of international trading companies in locations all around the world. Traders have dynamic and demanding teams which require prompt and robust advice. It is important to ensure that legal accuracy, attention to detail and impartiality are not compromised because a matter is urgent and high-pressured.
We review, negotiate, draft and advise on all commodity trading documents. This involves liaising with other support functions of the client’s business in respect of tax issues, financial issues, credit issues, compliance issues and any other areas of risk prior to execution.
A selection of commodity trading documents we draft and advise on:
Our firm also advises on cargo and shipping operational issues, for example, in relation to arrival/delivery windows, shortage and quality/off-spec, laytime and demurrage, issuing guarantees and letters of credit, bills of lading and letters of indemnity.
Back to topWe advise lenders, sellers and buyers on letters of credit, vessel mortgages and other finance arrangements, performance guarantees and lines of trade credit. We also act for clients on hedging documents and derivatives agreements.
This involves ensuring our client’s interests are fully protected under documentary credits and other finance agreements, such as rights as the holder of a bill of lading, lien rights against shipowners, rights to obtain security through court legal action and to wind up loan agreements and facility agreements with borrowers.
Back to topWe have experience of drafting and advising on Terminal Use Agreements, Port Liability Agreements and all documents required for the use of terminals by ship operators, logistic companies and freight forwarders.
Storage and blending are essential aspects in controlling and managing commodity prices and risk. There are often temporal issues that arise in supply or demand of commodities. Naturally that affects price. Holding the commodity, or indeed transforming the commodity by blending or other means, are two ways of dealing with those temporal pricing issues. We only need look as recently as the covid-19 pandemic for an example. Demand dropped drastically as the global economy was effectively shutdown overnight. The price of most commodities collapsed, led by oil markets. Traders needed to find storage solutions until prices rebounded and certain blends prioritised.
This dynamic creates a host of issues from a contractual and legal perspective. Often contracts do not properly contemplate the temporal issue. Perhaps they do and one party will suffer significant financial loss. We advise companies through such issues and seek to protect their position as far as possible. This does not only relate to catastrophic recessionary events. We have seen LME warrants for storage in the spotlight over the past decade at differing times, with alleged concerns about market distortion. There is also a myriad of issues that can arise with commodities as they pass through ports and terminals.
We also recently advised a leading bulk carrier /ports and terminal owner/operator on revising and drafting new provisions for their general terms and conditions at many locations across the US. This is a high profile project for this key client of the firm.
Back to topOur contract and advisory work is not limited to specific sectors. We advise on commercial projects and contracts across a raft of different industries and contexts. A key feature of our offering is to structure and advise on complex deals that are international in nature.
We regularly advise clients on how to achieve their commercial objectives through clever, clear structuring. We do this by first understanding fully the commercial context of the deal. The regulatory, legal and insurance frameworks, limitations and opportunities are then layered into the analysis. If we need to set up a multi-jurisdictional cross-border team, our collaborative and seamless approach across our international offices makes this a straight forward project management process. Indeed, this is the core of our global structure.
As a recent example, we advised a major international company on the insurance regimes in the United States, England and Australia in the context of their online sales and services. We are now moving into the structuring phase and our geographical reach makes us well placed to handle this extra work.
In our experience, no matter what sector or type of contract you are dealing with, the nature of our approach does not change. We treat every project as the most important priority we have, and apply our analysis and eye for detail to mitigate risk. We are strongly focused on results – getting the deal done for our client in the most favourable and commercially feasible way.
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