Geoffrey Wynne

Practice Areas

Geoffrey Wynne is head of the Trade & Export Finance Group and Sullivan's London office. He has extensive experience in banking and finance, specifically corporate and international finance, trade and structured trade and commodity finance, electronic bank and digitising trade finance, structured finance, asset and project finance, syndicated lending, equipment leasing, workouts and financing restructuring, leveraged and management buy-outs and general commercial matters.

Recognised as one of the leading trade finance lawyers globally, Geoff has advised extensively many of the major trade finance banks around the world on trade and commodity transactions in virtually every emerging market including CIS, Far East, India, Africa and Latin America. He has worked on many structured trade transactions covering such diverse commodities as oil, nickel, steel, tobacco, cocoa and coffee.

Geoff acts extensively for industry bodies including BAFT (the Bankers Association for Finance & Trade), ITFA (the International Trade and Forfaiting Association) and the ICC (the International Chamber of Commerce) on documentation and rules promulgated by them in trade finance.

He has recently been involved with issues including the ITFA White Paper on electronic Payment Undertakings (ePUs), the ICC Uniform Rules for Digital Trade Transactions (URDTT) and ITFA’s Uniform Rules for Transferable Electronic Payment Obligations (URTEPO). He worked with the Law Commission on the Electronic Trade Documents Act which is helping with the move towards the digitisation of trade documents.

Geoff was presented with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the RFIx Awards in 2024. He is ranked in Chambers UK, 2025 in Tier 1 as a Leading Individual for Commodities: Trade Finance, is included in the ‘Hall of Fame’ for Trade Finance by The Legal 500 UK, 2025 and is recognised as a Leading Lawyer – Highly Regarded in the United Kingdom by the IFLR1000, for banking and finance.

The team which Geoff leads has won numerous awards and recognition for its work in the Trade and Export Finance industry. In 2023, Sullivan was named Best Export Finance Law Firm at the GTR’s Leaders in Trade Awards. This followed the award for ‘Best trade or supply chain finance law firm’ at the 2022 GTR Leaders in Trade Awards, and ‘Best Trade Finance Law Firm’ by Trade Finance Global (TFG) in its International Trade Awards, 2022.

Career

Geoff joined Sullivan & Worcester 2013.

Christ Church, Oxford University, 1972, BA (Jurisprudence)

The College of Law, 1972-73.