Commodities and shipping lawyer Eleanor Midwinter has been promoted to partner at Wikborg Rein's London office.

The Oslo-headquartered law firm on Thursday said that Midwinter has played a "key role" in consolidating the firm's offering within international trade, energy and shipbuilding since she joined the firm in February 2017.

Chris Grieveson, managing partner of Wikborg Rein’s London office, said appointing Midwinter to the partnership is in line with the firm's plans to grow and expand its shipping, offshore and commodities practice in the city.

"Eleanor's legal knowledge is exceptional and her commitment, dedication and skills are recognised by colleagues as well as clients," Grieveson said.

"Eleanor's wealth of experience, enthusiasm and no-nonsense approach will bring much to the partnership and we are delighted to welcome her as a new partner in the London office as of 1 May."

Midwinter has a mixed advisory and disputes practice and is known for "providing clear options" in complex contractual and technical disputes, according to Wikborg Rein.

Her contractual work focuses on trade, transportation and storage of physical commodities, particularly LNG, oil and alternative fuels.

The firm said she has a "strong" track record of wins in the High Court and in arbitration, as well as "favourable settlements".

She is also part of the Wikborg Rein's Green Team, an internal initiative to proactively advise and act on industry developments such as decarbonisation.

Prior to joining Wikborg Rein, Eleanor worked at HFW in London within the trade, energy and commodities teams from 2008.

During that time she completed an in-house secondment within oil and gas trading company MET Group and at Danish law firm Gorrissen Federspiel.

Wikborg Rein said that one client commented that Eleanor "is extremely responsive, quickly acts to make difficult tasks simple and backs this up with clear recommendations".

Midwinter was ranked by the Legal 500 as a "Rising Star" in shipping and "recommended" for commodities work.

Last year, she was profiled in the legal category for Tradewinds' Thirty@30 edition, which highlighted people likely to be instrumental in changing or shaping the shipping industry in the future.

Finn Bjornstad, global managing partner of Wikborg Rein, called Midwinter "an excellent lawyer, with a great commercial sense and practical approach".

"Shipping, offshore and commodities — including trade finance — are all part of Wikborg Rein's core business and with the potential for further growth in the years to come, we are very pleased to appoint Eleanor Midwinter as a resident partner in our London office," he said.