The Legal 500

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