McGrath North's commodity practice includes both regulatory and transactions-based counseling primarily involving agricultural and energy commodity trading activities, financial trading matters and related risk management services.
Specialized Commodity Contracts McGrath North transactional attorneys negotiate and document numerous types of complex commodity and financial trading arrangements, including ISDA's, master purchase and sale agreements and related credit support documents. By fully understanding our clients' objectives and the related risks and benefits presented by a specific transaction, the attorneys in this practice area strive to develop innovative, yet practical, approaches to achieving our clients' objectives.
Commodity Contract Arbitration McGrath North transaction attorneys and litigators often join together when contractual disputes arise between the counterparties to a transaction. By joining these areas of expertise together, our clients benefit by attempting to resolve the dispute without the delay or expense of litigation while at the same time positioning the matter in a manner most favorable to our client in the event the dispute cannot be resolved short of litigation.
CFTC Regulation McGrath North attorneys provide a full range of regulatory counseling services, including those involving CFTC investigations and inquiries. These attorneys are also highly experienced in assisting with internal company investigations as well as CFTC regulatory compliance issues.
Representative Projects
McGrath North attorneys routinely assist clients:
- Concerning the enforcement of commodity contract termination and settlement rights in bankruptcy.
- Regarding the purchase and sale of various physical commodities, including grains, oilseeds, refined products and crude oil, including the use of amended CONOCO terms of purchase.
- With the negotiation and drafting of electricity and natural gas procurement and service-related contracts with various utilities throughout the United States, including negotiating special provisions to the NAESB Base Contract.
- In connection with transportation issues such as shipment terms, railcar leases and freight issues.
- With various credit-related documents, including guarantees, letters of credit, margin and collateral agreements and the drafting and enforcement of master netting and setoff arrangements.
- In Uniform Commercial Code and other credit aspects of grain transactions.
- With the documentation and negotiation of derivative transactions, including commodity swaps and option transactions, centering around ISDA Master Agreements and Schedules and Credit Support Annex and Schedules.
- In the litigation and arbitration of grain and commodity contract disputes, including disputes arising under The National Grain and Feed Association Rules and The National Oil Seed Producers Association Rules. Recently McGrath North attorneys successfully obtained judgments arising out of hedge-to-arrive contracts totaling more than $4 million for a Nebraska co-op against 18 producers who refused to deliver the contracted grain.
- With respect to the commodities aspects of renewable fuels production and marketing, including negotiating and drafting contracts for: the supply of corn, feedstock and other inputs for ethanol and biodiesel plants; sales and marketing of ethanol and biodiesel, as well as co-products such as distillers grains and glycerin; storage and transportation logistics relating to inputs and outputs at such plants; and the netting of payments and other credit issues that arise when the same parties are involved in both the supply and the offtake sides at a particular plant.
