The Legal 500

Carey Olsen is a leading law firm in the Channel Islands with over 130 lawyers in offices in Jersey, Guernsey and London. The firm delivers breadth and depth of expertise across all aspects of Jersey and Guernsey law and prides itself on providing commercial and private clients with a responsive, high-quality service. Carey Olsen is recognised as a top-tier law firm, with many of its lawyers considered to be leading individuals in their areas of expertise.

The firm: The firm acts for a significant number of institutional clients who are involved in large cross-border transactions. Clients include governments, multinational institutions, corporates, professional services firms around the world and high-net-worth individuals.

Types of work undertaken: Banking: the team delivers Jersey banking law and regulatory expertise across contentious and non-contentious work. Examples of work undertaken 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, HBOS, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland International.

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 and white-collar crime. 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, Jersey’s Waterfront Enterprise Board, Legal & General, Standard Life Investment Funds Limited and State Street Corporation.

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. According to Hemscott, Carey Olsen advises more UK listed companies than any other offshore law firm. Clients include Henderson Group, Petrofac Limited, State Street, 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, HBOS, HSBC, Nationwide Building Society, Santander, Société Générale, and Warner Real Estate Holdings.

Structured finance and securitisation: the team includes six partners in Jersey and enjoys a reputation for innovation and quality. It acts for issuers, trustees and leading 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 listed companies and has a good reputation in the tax-based structured finance market.

Other offices: Guernsey, London

Number of Jersey partners 19
Number of Jersey fee-earners 81

Carey Olsen is a leading law firm in the Channel Islands with over 130 lawyers in offices in Guernsey, Jersey and London. The firm delivers breadth and depth of expertise across all aspects of Guernsey and Jersey law and prides itself on providing commercial and private clients with a responsive high-quality service. Carey Olsen is recognised as a top-tier law firm, with many of its lawyers considered to be leading individuals in their areas of expertise.

The firm: Carey Olsen acts for a significant number of institutional clients who are involved in large cross-border transactions. Clients include governments, multinational institutions, corporates, professional firms around the world and high-net-worth individuals.

Types of work undertaken: Corporate and commercial: Carey Olsen’s corporate group is one of the largest in Guernsey and has continued to act in the most significant corporate transactions in the island during 2010. The team’s London presence offers City clients and contacts immediate access to practitioners who are Guernsey-qualified experts in corporate law. A core strength of the team is its ability to call on specialists in complimentary practice areas. In June 2010, a cross-practice Channel Islands team advised Sandpiper on the sale of five supermarkets to Waitrose which included corporate and property advice and, in February 2011, advised Close Brothers Group plc on the sale of its Channel Islands trust, fund administration, asset management and banking business to Kleinwort Benson. The firm’s corporate group was ranked as the number one law firm in the south west of England for corporate mergers and acquisitions and finance work (Experian, Corporate Finance Report 2010).

Fiduciary law: the firm’s fiduciary group advises both institutional and private clients on all aspects of trust, fiduciary and corporate law. The team boasts an enviable client portfolio including the majority of leading Guernsey licenced trust and company administration companies and has a wide city referral network. The team also provides specialised Guernsey pensions and employee benefit advice in respect of both local and international schemes.

Investment funds and private equity: Carey Olsen’s funds team has continued to advise on over 50% of Guernsey-domiciled funds (Thompson Reuters Lipper Fitzrovia 2010). In 2010 the team has continued to carve a niche for itself in AIM listings as well as LSE and CISX listings and, across the Channel Islands, is the leading offshore legal adviser to AIM clients (Hemscott 2010). Clients include international law firms, and major fund promoters in the Channel Islands, UK and internationally. The firm has advised Alchemy on its latest fund ASOF II and Inflexion Private Equity on its new buyout fund.

Litigation: the litigation and dispute resolution group is one of the largest and most respected teams in Guernsey and regularly receives instructions in diverse, heavyweight and complex commercial litigation matters together with instructions in contentious trusts, insolvency, banking and finance litigation, asset recovery, fraud and professional negligence claims. The team also advises on e-gaming, regulatory and compliance matters. Instructions come from institutional and private clients including BNP Paribas, Kleinwort Benson, Deutsche Bank and Barclays.

Property: the firm’s property group is recognised as being pre-eminent in the fields of commercial and residential property work. It is retained by Guernsey’s largest property developers and has acted in the majority of significant property transactions including the recent sale of five retail premises to Waitrose.

Employment: the team is regularly instructed by well-established UK and international law firms as well as corporations based in Guernsey. Working alongside the firm’s corporate group, the team often advises and assists in employment and pensions-related aspects of takeovers, mergers and management buyouts. The employment team’s Channel Islands presence continues to be a particular strength as it benefits a number of clients that have operations across the Channel Islands. The team is also regularly involved in contentious employment matters that are being heard in the Employment Tribunal, or run the risk of ending up there.

Other offices: Jersey, London

Number of Guernsey partners 15
Number of other Guernsey fee-earners 48