Lodewyk Meyer , Partner, Baker McKenzie
Lodewyk Meyer is a partner in Baker McKenzie's Banking and Finance Practice Group in Johannesburg.
Lodewyk covers all aspects of lending and is recognised as a leading lawyer in the field of structured trade and commodities finance.
His experience includes advising banks, structured trade, credit, insurance and speciality funds, and actors in the commodity value chain in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the USA.
He is a regular speaker at conferences on Africa trade and export finance, investment into Africa and structured finance, as well as on the financing and structuring of agri finance at conferences such as GTR (GTR West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa and GTR US, Europe and UK) as well as TXF.
He has published on topics such as warehouse receipt financing, legal risks in doing business in Africa and the use of structured finance techniques in agriculture, in various publications, among them Global Trade Review, Africa Investor and Chambers Magazine.
Lodewyk is recognised by Chambers Global, IFLR1000, Legal 500 and Best Lawyers of South Africa. He received citations for three matters that he handled, being Trade Finance Deal of the Year 2014: Multi Currency Borrowing Base Facility to a Middle Eastern and Asian Trader in nine African countries coordinated by Ecobank Transnational, and Trade Finance Deal of the Year 2016: Borrowing Base Facility to a South African Commodity Producer coordinated by Deutsche Bank London.
Lodewyk was part of Baker McKenzie’s Africa-focused Banking & Finance team that won the GFC Media Group’s Bonds, Loans & Sukuk Africa Award for Banking & Finance Legal Adviser of the Year 2021. The multijurisdictional team won the prestigious Legal Adviser of the Year award as a result their significant growth over the past 12 months, their work on ground-breaking financial transactions across the continent, and their strong client relationships in the African financial institutions industry, which have been particularly important in a year when so many have been adapting to the stresses of the pandemic.
In January 2022, the Africa-focused Banking & Finance team, which included Lodewyk, also won the EMEA Finance African Banking Awards Best Law Firm in Africa Award for 2021. According to EMEA Finance, Baker McKenzie received the award due to its "very strong showing in a very challenging and complex year."