Offshore jurisdictions play a key role in the global economy, from providing neutral territory for international investment, and secure structures where personal and collective wealth from across the world can grow with the global economy but protected from domestic politics, and often deployed in ways that creates returns and security for investors and real social impact.
The offshore world has responded to public challenges and the blurring of the offshore and onshore worlds. In this, fivehundred’s first special regional supplement, we deep dive into the offshore world to reveal the latest news, trends, and best practice developments, stepping outside the hall of mirrors to see how these jurisdictions add real value for global law firms and their clients.
We begin from a global perspective, with Appleby’s Jeffrey Kirk explaining legal innovation from an offshore firm angle; Ogier’s Katrina Edge on why a strategy of ‘getting to the point’ is a must to service the modern client; while Carey Olsen’s Michael Padarin in Hong Kong explains why you should think quality over quantity when it comes to client interactions.
From Jersey, Maples partners Paul Burton and Simon Hopwood highlight the features of Jersey holding companies that are attractive, from a global private equity acquisition and structuring point of view, and Jersey Finance’s CEO, Joe Moynihan, talks about the evolution of family offices.
Will Tolcher looks at a decade of The Legal 500’s rankings to reveal key trends in the Manx market and which offshore law firms are moving up the grid
A crown dependency, the Isle of Man has two unique calling cards other than its finance industry. The first is its world-famous TT motorcycle races. Running since 1907, competitors now whizz around closed public roads at speeds of up to 320 km/h. The other, perhaps secondary, clichéd image of Manx is the significantly more sedate …
Appleby is one of the world’s leading international law firms. Their global teams of legal specialists advise public and private companies, financial institutions and private individuals
Appleby is one of the world’s leading international law firms. Their global teams of legal specialists advise public and private companies, financial institutions and private individuals. They are a full service law firm providing comprehensive, expert advice and services across corporate, dispute resolution, property, regulatory and private client and trusts practice areas. They work with …
Jeffrey Kirk: We are consistently innovative in our thinking
What do you do differently from other offshore firms? Our clients have always been at the core of our business and we believe that our global model helps support them, when they need us the most. Our ability, where required, to draw on specialist expertise from our wider local and global network of practices to …
Katrina Edge, head of Ogier’s banking and finance practice in Europe and Jersey, on why offshore firms need a global approach
What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients? Our focus is on delivering market-leading client service by being the most advanced offshore firm in digital service delivery and innovation. We have rolled out an award-winning, cross-jurisdictional initiative to streamline our transaction processes, promote a culture of continuous improvement and ultimately …
The Hong Kong-based head of Carey Olsen’s corporate practice on why lawyers must continuously think outside of the square, why there is more to the offshore world than sun, sea, and palm trees, and why you should think quality over quantity when it comes to client interactions
What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients? We’ve made two major changes recently, both of which will be of great benefit to our clients. The first main change has been the launch of our Hong Kong corporate practice. We were previously an insolvency, restructuring, and litigation practice only from …
Senior Partner John F Wilson discusses why timely, efficient, and excellent client service is his firm’s competitive advantage
What do you see as the main points that differentiate McKinney, Bancroft & Hughes (MBH) from your competitors? Firstly, responsiveness. All of our lawyers are under strict directives to respond to every client email within 24 hours. We can say we have excellent attorneys, while we believe our attorneys are the best in the Bahamas, …
Ferbrache & Farrell advocate and partner talks about unfair perceptions, cybersecurity and innovation, and working in a family minded partnership
What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients? We have tried to change and adapt to the constant evolution of technology, whilst maintaining our traditional partnership ethos (based on the collective of all our individual members of our team of just under 20 people). Those changes have seen us adopt …
Leading private equity sponsors investing in larger scale primary deals increasingly require innovative structuring solutions to access transactions that are not available via a conventional M&A process. Jersey investment holding vehicles provide an adaptable platform for delivering these solutions as well as for conventional buyouts. This article from Maples and Calder (Jersey) LLP, the Maples Group’s law firm in Jersey focuses on the features of Jersey holding companies that are attractive from a global Private Equity (PE) acquisition/structuring point of view and other uses of Jersey as part of the downstream investment process
One of the main attractions for top sponsors looking to maintain a stable of coveted assets is the ‘best in class’ investor return prospects which those assets have the potential to achieve. It has been suggested that the mid-market deal space (and within that the secondary and tertiary landscape) has been the most competitive and …
Dominic Wheatley, chief executive of Guernsey Finance, highlights new research on a specialist development for Guernsey
Guernsey’s funds sector is not alone in clearly seeing the merging of the private equity and private capital space. Private capital has become a normalised source of financing, while the investment management sector is seen increasingly as a gateway to a direct investment opportunity. A survey carried out by Guernsey Finance earlier this year at …
Dr Andy Sloan, Chair of Guernsey Green Finance, outlines Guernsey’s role in tackling climate change through the breadth of financial services
It is difficult to ignore the issue of climate change today. Climate finance the issue of how the global population will make the changes required to limit global warning and give the planet a sustainable future tends to be a step away from the Extinction Rebellion protests taking place in London. However, climate finance is …
secure structures where personal and collective wealth from across the world can grow with the global economy but protected from domestic politics, and often deployed in ways that creates returns and security for investors and real social impact.
