The year offshore in review – The Iron Islands

Despite a year of pronounced headwinds, our annual focus on the ten largest offshore firms reveals that 2016 activity levels remained robust with an increasing focus on Asia and continued strength in dispute resolution. However, among the leadership of these firms there is little doubt that Brexit has had an inevitable effect on performance.

‘The reality of Brexit has and will continue to impact business as much as the prospect of Brexit has done,’ says Jonathan Rigby, managing partner at Mourant Ozannes.

Global offshore firms based in the Channel Islands (Bedell Cristin, Carey Olsen, Collas Crill, Mourant and Ogier) have mostly felt the impact in funds work, both public and private. Ogier, the only top-ten player to have a Luxembourg office, has seen some shift towards funds being launched there. But Peter Tarn, chairman of Harneys, offers a different perspective: ‘The uncertainty around the vote, the lead up to it and the number of deals that went very slowly as a result was in some ways worse than the result. Certainly post-vote, people were just getting on with it.’

The point is developed by Alex Ohlsson, Jersey managing partner at Carey Olsen: ‘We certainly saw the aftermath of Brexit in terms of shock and, to an extent, stagnation: various transactions were put on hold until parties had time to reflect and to see which way things were going. But that was surprisingly short lived. Despite the uncertainty, the move in the currency [sterling’s depreciation] has resulted in people seeing it as an opportunity.’

The offshore transactional market was affected by the wider decline in global deal volumes. According to Mergermarket, global M&A activity for 2016 amounted to $3.1trn, a 22% drop from the previous year. Appleby’s most recent private equity report for 2016 shows that, compared to a very strong 2015, investment volumes are down by 18% with 51 deals, while value is down by 55% at $13.7bn. In M&A overall, the top ten firms highlighted significantly more deals in the first half of 2016 compared to the second.

For most Caribbean-based firms, the focus was less on Brexit and more on Asia. ‘Demand for litigation services is up in Bermuda, BVI and Cayman: this is expected to increase,’ says David Lamb, Hong Kong-based partner and co-chair of Conyers Dill & Pearman. Shareholder and trust disputes predominate. ‘We’ve taken on some big litigation that might be litigated jurisdictionally in BVI or Cayman, but it comes from Asia-based clients,’ says Ingrid Pierce, managing partner of Walkers in the Cayman Islands.

The continued focus on growth from Hong Kong (and more widely China) in funds and trusts work shows up in lawyer numbers. The top ten firms now have 174 lawyers in Hong Kong, well ahead of both Bermuda (102) and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) (119). Only Cayman (336), Guernsey (211) and Jersey (341) have more (see box, ‘By the numbers’, below). Three firms – Harneys, Maples and Calder and Walkers – have boosted their Hong Kong lawyer headcount over the last year, while Carey Olsen also opened there last November following a Singapore opening in October.

‘We have a significant Hong Kong presence; it is not feeling the angst of Brexit anywhere near as much as anyone else,’ says Edward Mackereth, managing partner at Ogier. Meanwhile, seven of the top ten also have growing offices in Singapore (43 lawyers in total). It is clear that for all firms based offshore, the Asia market continues to offer the strongest prospects for meaningful growth.

Below are snapshots of the ten largest firms from 2016, focusing on recent performance and practice growth.

 

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APPLEBY

Lawyers: 173, including 59 partners

Offices: Ten (Bermuda, BVI, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Jersey, Mauritius, Seychelles, Shanghai)

Group managing partner: Michael O’Connell (Jersey)

Focus: Corporate, dispute resolution, private client/trusts, property and regulatory

Recent standout deal: Corporate partner Steven Rees Davies led the Bermuda team advising Triton Container International on its $8.7bn merger with NYSE-listed TAL International Group.

Recent standout disputes work: Disputes partner Michael Hanson is currently representing JetBlue Airways in a Supreme Court wrongful dismissal action and a Human Rights Act tribunal. The employee in question is a leading member of Bermuda’s opposition party.

‘We have seen an explosive growth across our global network. Corporate restructuring work is of course cyclical, so it may tail off in 2017.’
Michael O’Connell, Appleby

Among a number of noteworthy transactions on which Appleby advised in 2016, the firm’s group managing partner, Michael O’Connell, highlights representing PartnerRe in Bermuda from when it first agreed to a merger of equals with AXIS Capital and then fielded an unsolicited bid from Exor, which was successful, closing in March 2016 in a deal worth $6.9bn.

O’Connell identifies the private equity-backed management buyout of Appleby’s fiduciary business, now called Estera, which separated the legal and fiduciary arms, as the most significant internal event last year. ‘While this took place at the very start of 2016, and the physical and legal separation completed quickly, its impact was felt for the first half of the year when we were still in the throes of separating our network and systems.’

The greatest fee income increase came from corporate restructuring work. ‘We have seen an explosive growth and it is not confined to one geographic area,’ says O’Connell. ‘It has been across our global network. This type of work is of course cyclical, so we may see it tail off in 2017.’

He is, however, positive about M&A this year: ‘Many of the fundamentals that drove transactions to record levels in 2015 remain in place. Companies and funds still have plenty of cash available and ready access to affordable finance in a low-interest rate environment.’

Lateral hires at Appleby included banking and finance partner Fiona Chan, who joined the Hong Kong office from Harneys in May, and Alex Brainis, who joined in June as Cayman funds partner in June from the Intertrust Group.

 

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BEDELL CRISTIN

Lawyers: 62, including 23 partners

Offices: Eight (Jersey, Guernsey, London, Dublin, Geneva, Mauritius, BVI, Singapore)

Managing partner: David Cadin (Jersey)

Focus: Banking, capital markets, property, corporate/commercial, insolvency/restructuring, insurance/reinsurance, investment funds, litigation, private client, probate, regulatory and compliance

Recent standout deal: Jersey partners Tim Pearce and Alasdair Hunter advised Wandle Holdings, a shareholder in Russia’s largest gold producer Polyus Gold, on a $6.17bn facility arranged by Sberbank of Russia.

Recent standout disputes work: Head of litigation Anthony Robinson advised in breach of trust proceedings (Crociani v Crociani) seeking the restitution of in excess of $100m of trust assets.

The most significant event in Bedell’s year was the management buyout of the trust company, Bedell Trust (which explains a significant fall in headcount this year). The exchange took place in March and completed in September 2016. ‘It meant my move from litigation partner to managing partner,’ says David Cadin, who took over the reins last January.

He says there will be a transitional period of around 12 months during which he will oversee the firm’s evolution: ‘I’ve got to take a law firm from being a combined business with annuity income, through to being a standalone business and to shake things up a bit – to reshape this firm, to rebalance it, for example, going from a shared data environment to putting everything on separate servers. Logistically, that is a challenging exercise, with a huge amount of risk involved, so you’ve got to get it right.’

Although the firm has had a strong year across the board in its core finance and funds practices, Cadin identifies litigation, which has seen a 41% year-on-year-increase in revenues, as the standout area. ‘Although it’s probably a spike, I would like to think it’s a sustainable trend,’ he says. The most prominent matter for the team has been the high-profile Crociani case, which Cadin describes as ‘a fascinating family trust dispute’.

The dispute is evidence of how much litigation feeds from the firm’s private wealth practice – its second biggest practice area – which comprises property, conveyancing and non-contentious trust structures. ‘Litigation has effectively been seeded by the trusts of years gone by,’ notes Cadin. ‘On top of that, we’ve got the regulatory/compliance fraud-type litigation. The impact of The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and The Common Reporting Standard affects all our teams.’

 

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CAREY OLSEN

Lawyers: 194, including 49 partners

Offices: Eight (BVI, Cape Town, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Jersey, London, Singapore)

Managing partner: Alex Ohlsson (Jersey)

Chair: John Kelleher (Jersey)

Focus: Banking/finance, corporate/commercial, investment funds and private equity, dispute resolution, trusts/private wealth, property, employment and insurance

Recent standout deal: Partner Guy Coltman advised Liberty Media Corporation on the acquisition of the Formula One (F1) business from a consortium of sellers, led by CVC Capital Partners. The transaction price represents an enterprise value for F1 of $8bn and an equity value of $4.4bn.

Recent standout disputes work: Guernsey managing partner John Greenfield secured orders on behalf of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission on separate applications to place two regulated entities into administration and one non-regulated entity into compulsory liquidation.

According to managing partner Alex Ohlsson, the most significant development for the firm recently was opening two offices in Asia in one year: Singapore opened in October 2015 with an official launch in 2016, while the Hong Kong office opened in November 2016.

‘We are seeing increasing flows of capital from Asia,’ he says. ‘In terms of Singapore, we see that very much as a corporate offering, whereas the Hong Kong office is very much focused on dispute work, particularly arising out of China.’

Alongside strong growth in the firm’s funds, banking, finance and real estate practices, the corporate practice has been particularly active. ‘As a firm we have a particular focus on international M&A transactions, which have flourished,’ says Ohlsson. ‘There’s also been significant activity in the fiduciary and corporate service provider market, which has consolidated over the last five years. We’ve been involved in most of those transactions.’

In addition to advising Liberty Media on the F1 deal, Carey Olsen advised Park Square Capital last year on the launch of its third subordinated debt fund, valued at €1.5bn; and VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (valued at $710.5m) on its migration from Cayman to Guernsey and its move from AIM to the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.

To deepen the experience levels in the fledgling Singapore office, partner Anthony McKenzie relocated there in November from Cayman. At the same time, partner Michael Makridakis also relocated to Hong Kong from the Cayman office, where he established and led the firm’s dispute resolution and insolvency team.

 

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COLLAS CRILL

Lawyers: 66, including 33 partners

Offices: Six (BVI, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Jersey, London, Singapore)

Group managing partner: Jason Romer (Guernsey)

Chair: Alex Rodger (Guernsey)

Focus: Banking/finance, capital markets, corporate/commercial, dispute resolution, investment funds/private equity, trusts/fiduciary/private client services, property, risk and regulatory, and UK real estate

Recent standout deal: Partner Sean Cheong acted for the Market Tech group in a £900m secured debt facility from AIG Asset Management (Europe) to refinance its existing facility with Nomura International and Bank of Cyprus.

Recent standout disputes work: Partner Elena Moran successfully acted for Tepe İnşaat, a Turkish construction company, in Jersey’s Court of Appeal, which upheld a lower court ruling that shares in foreign-owned subsidiaries have no state immunity from enforcement.

According to group managing partner Jason Romer, Collas Crill’s most significant recent development was its merger with BVI firm Farara Kerins, which took effect on 1 January this year. Gerard Farara will be BVI senior partner and Charles Kerins managing partner. ‘They are highly respected practitioners, which gives us a platform to deliver BVI work that we had been outsourcing to our competitors and had become a bit irksome,’ Romer says.

Romer sees this latest tie-up as similar to its merger in January 2015 with Cayman-based Charles Adams Ritchie & Duckworth. ‘A small firm that fits perfectly with what we are looking for in terms of great corporate and litigation capability. Together with the development in our Singapore office, it gives us the capability to do BVI work from Asia.’

That development included the October arrival of transactional lawyer Stephen Adams from Bedell Cristin, where in 2012 he established and then headed up its Singapore office. This came shortly after Marcus Hinkley, formerly head of the Collas Crill Singapore office, moved to Withers KhattarWong as special counsel.

The firm reports double-digit revenue growth in 2016, driven chiefly by litigation, including the long-running Carlyle Investment Management case in Guernsey; and in Jersey, the Tepe case. Another significant dispute involved Galasys, a Jersey company (previously AIM-listed) in dispute with shareholders and investors. ‘That came through our Singapore office from a business development trip to Malaysia; you can never tell where these things are going to come from,’ says Romer.

 

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Co-publishing feature

Offshore but not off limits
– David Lawler, Navigant Consulting

CONYERS DILL & PEARMAN

Lawyers: 135 lawyers, including 61 partners

Offices: Eight (Bermuda, BVI, Cayman Islands, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Mauritius, Singapore)

Co-chairs: Narinder Hargun (Bermuda) and David Lamb (Hong Kong)

Focus: Corporate (including aviation, banking and financing, capital markets, hedge funds, insurance, M&A, private equity/venture capital and shipping), dispute resolution, private client/trust, intellectual property and real estate

Recent standout deal: Co-chair David Lamb provided Cayman advice to the buying consortium on the $9.3bn privatisation of Qihoo 360 Technology Co, the largest ever take-private deal of a US-listed Chinese company.

Recent standout disputes work: In the Supreme Court of Bermuda, Christian Luthi represented Energy Development Group in a restructuring/insolvency matter, securing an adjournment of the petition and of an application to appoint ‘light touch’ provisional liquidators, enabling a proposed restructuring.

Conyers co-chair David Lamb is bullish, describing 2016 as an exceptional year for the firm, pointing to its role in many of the year’s ‘most innovative deals and cases’.

Examples include advising DSV, the Danish transport and logistics group, on its $1.35bn acquisition of UTi Worldwide (the second-largest takeover of a publicly-listed BVI company by transaction value); Cayman advice to Youku Tudou on Alibaba Group’s $3.5bn acquisition of its outstanding shares; and providing Bermuda legal advice to White Mountains Insurance Group on its $2.6bn sale of Sirius International Insurance Group to CM International Holding, the Singapore-based investment arm of China Minsheng Investment Group.

As the bedrock of Conyers’ practice, Bermuda has seen insurance, finance and capital markets developments that have ‘reaffirmed the jurisdiction’s position as a leading domicile’, according to Narinder Hargun, director and co-chair in Bermuda.

And despite fewer incorporations, the number of active BVI companies remains steady at 450,000, ‘which demonstrates that their lifespan is extending, as confidence in the BVI grows worldwide’, suggests Lamb, adding that ‘notwithstanding the decline in incorporations, our numbers in this space have doubled over the last five years’.

To support its growth, he anticipates the firm will hire four more corporate lawyers in the next six months. BVI office revenues in 2016 were comparable to 2015. Likewise, Conyers’ Cayman practice has experienced ‘steady growth across a number of practice areas’, according to Lamb. These include litigation, private equity, capital markets and M&A.

 

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HARNEYS

Lawyers: 143, including 49 partners

Offices: Eight full offices (Bermuda, BVI, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Hong Kong, London, Montevideo, Singapore). The firm also has representative offices in Anguilla, São Paulo, Shanghai, Tokyo and Vancouver, and operates in Mauritius in association with BLC Robert & Associates

Executive committee chair: Peter Tarn (London)

Focus: Litigation, restructuring/insolvency, commercial/corporate, private wealth/trusts, investment funds, tax and regulatory, intellectual property, banking/finance, shipping/aircraft, insurance and real estate

Recent standout deal: Partners Simon Hudd (London) and Greg Boyd (BVI) advised on the $1.35bn merger of third-party logistics companies UTi Worldwide and DSV, in one of the largest-ever takeovers of a publicly-listed BVI company.

Recent standout disputes work: Cayman Islands partner Marc Kish is acting for the liquidators of SIFCO5 in the Saad Investments Company trial, which involves allegations of fraud alleged to have led to the misappropriation of assets worth in excess of $9.2bn.

In 2015, Harneys underwent significant expansion, opening representative offices in Shanghai and Tokyo, and combining with Bermudian firm Hurrion & Associates. However, Sarah-Jane Hurrion, who had been managing partner of the Bermuda combination, and her team of seven lawyers left the firm at the end of December 2016 due to a ‘potential conflict of interest’. Harneys is ‘in active discussions’ with a different Bermuda firm.

‘I did jokingly say that one of my ambitions for 2016 was not to open any more offices,’ says Tarn, London managing partner and chair of the firm’s executive committee. ‘We have caught up massively and indeed overtaken other firms in terms of size in the last five years, but there’s still a little way to go.’

Instead, ‘2016 was all about the growth of the Cayman transactional team and the bedding in of our new funds team, and what that’s given us in terms of reach and the projection into North America’, says Tarn. The real coming of age, he believes, is being seen as a mainstream player in that market.

Tarn continues to push for double-digit revenue growth, which has been in the 15-20% range for several years, and anticipates significant new product developments coming through in early 2017. He predicts ‘new structures in corporates, partnerships and business vehicles, adapting to a different world’.

To service the new developments, Harneys has boosted its lawyer headcount. In September and October, the firm hired 14 lawyers across its Singapore, Cayman and BVI offices. In Hong Kong and Singapore combined, the firm now has 35 lawyers. The Hong Kong team was further bolstered in March 2016 by the arrival of finance partner Paul Sephton from Walkers and in May of Joanne Verbiesen, a litigation partner, also from Walkers. Eight associates were made up to partner on 1 January.

 

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MAPLES AND CALDER

Lawyers: 297, including 114 partners

Offices: Seven (BVI, Cayman Islands, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Singapore)

Global managing partner: Alasdair Robertson (Cayman Islands)

Focus: Disputes, corporate, finance, funds, insolvency/corporate restructuring, insurance, intellectual property/technology/telecoms, private equity, property/construction, regulatory/financial services, sports/media/entertainment, tax and trusts

Recent standout deal: Hong Kong partners Greg Knowles and Richard Spooner advised Qihoo 360 Technology on its $9.3bn take-private – the largest de-listing deal by a US-listed Chinese company to date.

Recent standout disputes work: Cayman partners Matthew Gardner, Michael Johns, James Eldridge and Caroline Moran advised Vantage Drilling International, and its former subsidiary OGIL, on its prepackaged Chapter 11 cases to restructure the group, including more than $2.5bn in senior secured debt.

With 297 lawyers – the largest of any offshore firm – Maples was active in a number of headline deals in 2016. These included advising Irish-headquartered Avolon on its $7.6bn sale to Bohai Leasing (Cayman and Dublin); hedge fund manager BlueCrest Capital Management on its $8bn restructuring (Cayman); and Singapore-based Avago Technologies on its $37bn acquisition of Broadcom (Cayman).

Unlike Appleby, Bedell Cristin, Mourant, Ogier and Walkers – which have all sold off their fiduciary businesses – Maples Fiduciary Services continues to grow (with 54 employees in Ireland alone), providing trust, fund and company administration services. Although Cayman (48 partners, 60 lawyers) remains Maples’ centre of gravity, Dublin (33 partners, 81 lawyers) edged ahead last year in terms of total lawyer headcount.

Maples remains the leading legal adviser to Irish-serviced funds as ranked by the Monterey Insight Fund Report, published in December 2016. Introduced in March 2015, the Irish Collective Asset-management Vehicles Act now accounts for around 70% of all authorised Irish funds regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, of which Maples has a 32% market share as legal adviser.

In June 2016, Ray Davern joined as a partner based in London. At 20 lawyers it is the largest office of any offshore firm in the UK capital. He was formerly head of both the BVI and Cayman private client and trust practices at Conyers. His arrival follows the addition of partner Morven McMillan, who joined in January 2016 from Mourant as co-head of the global trusts and private client practice in Cayman.

 

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MOURANT OZANNES

Lawyers: 204, including 55 partners

Offices: Six (BVI, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Jersey, London)

Global managing partner: Jonathan Rigby (Jersey)

Senior partner: Robert Shepherd (Guernsey)

Focus: Finance and corporate, funds, international trusts/private client and litigation

Recent standout deal: Robert Hickling was lead partner in advising longstanding FTSE 100 biotech client Shire on the Jersey aspects of its $32bn takeover of Baxalta.

Recent standout disputes work: Cayman partner Peter Hayden advised AH Al-Gosaibi & Bros in a fraud claim against Maan Al Sanea and the Saad Group of companies to recover over $6bn. The Cayman trial began in July 2016.

Rigby points to the major cases handled by the firm as evidence of yet another strong year for Mourant. ‘Our global litigation practice has been working on three of the largest and most significant cases currently ongoing in the offshore and onshore world: two in Cayman (AHAB v Saad), one in Jersey (Galasys).’

He also points to ‘tremendous growth in our Hong Kong office’, with revenues up 65% year-on-year. This was driven, says Rigby, by a sharp rise in the firm’s finance and corporate work, and the establishment in 2015 of a Hong Kong insolvency and litigation practice. Globally, he suggests Mourant’s litigation practice is the largest of any offshore law firm which has had a ‘fantastic’ year, with revenues up almost 20%.

Rigby remains upbeat about growth in Asia, but is more cautious about the Channel Islands, where the work undertaken on the new manager-led fund product, the Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF) as well as private fund regimes in Jersey, and the equivalent manager-led and private investment fund regimes in Guernsey, stand out.

In 2017, he expects revenue growth in the Channel Islands transactional practices ‘returning to historic norms after stellar growth in 2015 and the volatile market conditions in 2016’. The latter is supported by a Mourant study, published in November 2016, of 260 general and limited partners at UK and European private equity firms which showed that most of them had delayed fund launches following the Brexit vote.

In addition to boosting its overall lawyer headcount by nearly 10%, Mourant hired Tony Pursall, who joined the London office in August 2016 as a trust and private client partner from Maples. In October, Frances Watson joined from Ogier as a Guernsey corporate and funds partner.

 

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OGIER

Lawyers: 160, including 57 partners

Offices: Eight (BVI, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Jersey, Luxembourg, plus presences in Shanghai and Tokyo)

Global managing partner: Edward Mackereth (Jersey)

Global senior partner: Steve Meiklejohn (Jersey)

Focus: Banking/finance, corporate/commercial, dispute resolution, environment, investment funds, listings, private client/trusts, real estate, regulatory, restructuring/insolvency and tax

Recent standout deal: Jersey partners Matthew Shaxson and Raulin Amy advised Global Infrastructure Partners on its sale of London City Airport to a consortium comprised of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Alberta Investment Management Corporation, Borealis Infrastructure and Wren House Infrastructure.

According to Ogier’s Mackereth, who took over in April 2016 alongside new senior partner Steve Meiklejohn, the firm has seen growth across most offices. ‘The Jersey finance practice has gone from strength to strength,’ he says. ‘Our Guernsey practice had significant double-digit growth, the Cayman corporate practice is strong and Luxembourg is growing at 30% year-on-year.’

 

 

‘We are looking to strengthen both our funds and finance plays across every one of our jurisdictions.’
Edward Mackereth, Ogier

 

 

As the only large offshore player with a Luxembourg office, Ogier now has 15 lawyers in the grand duchy, including five partners. Mackereth points to its revolution in the RAIF as a key driver: ‘A sort of post-AIFMD [Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive] fund, which shifts regulations to managers rather than the fund’.

He sees growth ‘not necessarily in every service line, but in every jurisdiction, except the BVI, where we’ve invested in our dispute resolution team, although the corporate side has been quieter’. Further expansion is expected in Hong Kong, along with plans to strengthen its fund practices further in both Channel Islands.

Mackereth also predicts that private wealth will continue to grow in Hong Kong, causing work to flow into the Channel Islands from that, particularly because there is an increased appetite in Asia for well-regulated trust environments and trust products.

Lateral hires included Nicholas Burkill, who joined the firm’s BVI office in October from Dorsey & Whitney in London where he headed the trial department and co-chaired the firm’s anti-corruption practice, and Bertrand Geradin, who was hired from King & Wood Mallesons in September to head the corporate practice in Luxembourg.

‘We are looking to strengthen both our funds and finance plays across virtually every one of our jurisdictions,’ concludes Mackereth.

 

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WALKERS

Lawyers: 244, including 93 partners

Offices: Ten (Bermuda*, BVI, Cayman Islands, Dubai, Hong Kong, Guernsey, Ireland, Jersey, London, Singapore)

* Walkers practises in an exclusive association with Taylors

Global managing partner: Ingrid Pierce (Cayman)

Senior partner: Mark Lewis (Cayman)

Focus: Banking and finance, corporate, funds, insolvency and dispute resolution, insurance, listing services, private equity, real estate, regulatory/compliance, structured products/capital markets, taxation (Ireland) and wealth structuring

Recent standout deal: Acting as Cayman counsel to Chinese-listed Bohai Leasing on the €6.5bn take-private of NYSE-listed Avolon Holdings.

Recent standout disputes work: Representing a number of defendants, including Saad Investments and Singularis Holdings (both in official liquidation) in a $9.2bn fraud claim brought by the Saudi Arabian partnership AH Al-Gosaibi & Bros.

 

‘Growth in Asia has been significant, not just in terms of bodies, but also because of where we sit relative to competitors.’
Ingrid Pierce, Walkers

 

Walkers has seen a significant increase in lawyer headcount over the last year, most notably in Dublin and Dubai – which has trebled in size from three to nine lawyers – as well as in Hong Kong.

In 2015 the firm established an exclusive association with Taylors in Bermuda, which now has seven lawyers and, in July 2016, announced a takeover of local Guernsey practice AO Hall, giving the firm 12 lawyers on the island.

Dispute resolution and insolvency continue to be the main drivers of expansion, with lawyer headcount reaching 35 in Hong Kong by the end of 2016. ‘We’ve taken on some significant mandates that are litigated in BVI or Cayman, but generated by Asia-based clients,’ says Pierce. The increase in litigation has principally been through shareholders’ disputes and trust disputes, as well as asset recovery matters.

Pierce notes that the firm’s growth in Asia has been significant ‘not just in terms of bodies, but also because of where we sit relative to competitors. It gives us the ability to do more things in different places’. Prominent hires include Lucy Frew, who joined in September as partner in Cayman to lead the firm’s regulation and risk advisory group – she was previously head of financial regulatory at Kemp Little in London – and finance expert James Webb, who was hired in August from Mourant as a partner in its Hong Kong office. LB