The Legal 500

Carey Olsen is a leading offshore law firm with offices in the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Jersey and London. The firm provides British Virgin Islands, Guernsey and Jersey legal advice and, from September 2012, Carey Olsen will provide Cayman Islands legal advice from its office in the Cayman Islands. With more than 130 lawyers, Carey Olsen offers a full range of legal services, including corporate and commercial, funds, banking and finance, trusts and fiduciary, commercial and residential property, employment, restructuring, litigation and dispute resolution.

The firm: The firm acts for a number of institutional clients in large, multi-jurisdictional transactions, as well as for governments, corporates, professional firms and high-net-worth individuals. According to Morningstar’s Professional Service Rankings Guide, Carey Olsen advises more UK listed companies than any other offshore law firm.

Types of work undertaken: Banking: the team delivers Jersey banking law and regulatory expertise across contentious and non-contentious work. Examples include: advice and assistance in lending, taking of security, recovery and enforcement of security, enforcement of loans, mergers, reviews of client documentation and support for restructuring of operations. Clients include Barclays Bank, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland International and Santander.

Commercial litigation: the litigation group is one of the largest in the Channel Islands. Types of work include: asset freezing, disclosure orders, trust and probate litigation, insolvency and debt recovery, asset tracing, contract law, company law, professional misconduct, negligence and fraud, mediation and employment law, public law, white-collar crime, e-gaming, regulatory and compliance matters. The group acts in the largest trust disputes that come before the Royal Court, including multi-jurisdictional disputes.

Commercial property: the team continues to enhance its reputation as being the preferred property law group of institutional clients, both local and international, on sales, acquisitions and lettings of commercial property in Jersey. Clients include Axa Sun Life, Cable & Wireless, CompropCl, Deloitte LLP, HSBC, Legal & General, Standard Life Investment Funds Limited and the States of Jersey Development Company.

Corporate and commercial: the group advises on both public and private M&A, IPOs and general corporate and commercial law, typically working alongside global and UK law firms. Clients include Capita plc, Henderson Group, Petrofac Limited, Polymetal plc, West China Cement Limited, Wolseley and various international corporate and banking clients.

Fiduciary law: the team advises financial institutions, intermediaries and high-net-worth individuals on the creation of trusts and other structures. Advice is also given on international tax and estate planning, fiduciary compliance legislation and trust-related disputes. The team also sets up and acts for private and public sector pension and employee benefit schemes, and undertakes trusts, wills, residential property and probate work for private clients.

Investment funds and private equity: the team is a recognised market leader. It acts for a wide range of leading promoters, managers, custodians, administrators, distributors and investors. It establishes all types of fund structure in all types of asset class and has a reputation for providing real value to clients through responsiveness and innovation. It also advises existing fund structures on a variety of matters such as regulatory, liquidity and activist investor issues.

Real estate finance: the team advises on finance, property, tax and corporate transactional work and has acted in some of the largest and most innovative property financing arrangements structured offshore. The team focuses on the international market, advising on areas such as the lending and security aspects of transactions structured through Jersey. Clients include Allied London Properties Ltd, The British Land Company, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Postbank, Hammerson, HSBC, Nationwide Building Society, Santander, Société Générale, and Warner Estate Holdings plc.

Structured finance and securitisation: the team includes five partners in Jersey and enjoys a reputation for innovation and quality. It acts for issuers, trustees and leading global investment banks on all types of structured finance, securitisation and capital markets transactions, including the restructuring of existing deals. Carey Olsen acts on a significant number of cashbox structures undertaken through Jersey subsidiaries of UK plcs or with UK plc issuers and has a good reputation in the tax-based structured finance market.

Other offices: Cayman Islands, Guernsey, London

Number of jersey Partners 21

Number of jersey fee-earners 84