Michael Padarin > Carey Olsen Hong Kong LLP > Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong > Lawyer Profile

Carey Olsen Hong Kong LLP Offices

Carey Olsen Hong Kong LLP
Suites 3610-13, Jardine House
1 Connaught Place
Central
Hong Kong SAR
Hong Kong
Visit website 852 3628 9000 852 3628 9090

Michael Padarin

Michael Padarin photo
+852 3628 9006 michael.padarin@careyolsen.com View profile View profile

Work Department

Corporate; Investment Funds

Position

Michael’s practice concentrates on the formation, operation and restructuring of offshore private investment funds, across the alternatives spectrum including private equity, venture, credit and secondaries funds, and their related fund sponsor vehicles. He specialises in Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Bermuda law. Michael is highly regarded for his breadth of experience advising across the spectrum from emerging managers to the most sophisticated global institutional players.

Michael also represents early and later stage companies in a range of industries, including fintech, blockchain, life sciences and technology, in relation to private financings, listings, cross-border investments and other M&A transactions. He is regularly instructed by leading international firms as specialist Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands counsel on complex corporate transactions.

Michael lived and worked in the Cayman Islands before returning to Hong Kong and has a wealth of experience dealing with inbound and outbound China deals. During his time in the Cayman Islands Michael acted for some of North America’s largest private equity houses on both fund formation and downstream transactional work. He is one of the most experienced offshore private equity specialists in the Hong Kong market.

Career

Prior to joining Carey Olsen, Michael was a partner in the global investment funds group of another offshore firm based in the Cayman Islands for seven years, having previously spent over four years in its Hong Kong office.

Michael was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 2002, a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 2012, a solicitor of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of the British Virgin Islands in 2012, as an attorney-at-law in the Cayman Islands in 2012 and is enrolled as a registered associate in Bermuda.

Lawyer Rankings

Hong Kong > Offshore law firms

(Leading individuals)

Michael Padarin – Carey Olsen Hong Kong LLP

Carey Olsen Hong Kong LLP continues to gain traction in the market, with a number of notable recent hires raising the firm’s profile and providing it with enhanced resources with which to serve its client base. The litigation offering, which is led by the ‘responsive’ Jeremy Lightfoot has experienced most growth over the last 12 months, with the arrival in May 2023 of shareholder, corporate disputes and insolvency litigator Tim Haynes from Kobre & Kim, a particularly noteworthy hire. Praised for his ‘superb tactical sense and excellent client skills’, Matthew Watson, who joined from Bermuda firm Cox Hallett Wilkinson Limited, is also a notable hire in light of his growing reputation at handling complex trust and commercial litigation disputes. On the transactional front, the ‘responsive, committed and completely reliable’ Michael Padarin combines a thriving corporate practice with his duties as managing partner, while James Webb  ‘balances technical expertise with commercial awareness’ to provide a stellar service to clients, particularly in relation to fund finance work.

Foreign-based expertise > Leading firms

(Leading Individuals)

Michael Padarin – Carey Olsen Hong Kong LLP

Overview

Leveraging the expertise throughout its UK and Asia offices, Carey Olsen’s ‘incredibly responsive and effective’ global Caribbean-focused practice draws on ‘deep reservoirs of expertise and experience’ to field ‘the A-Team of all offshore practices operating today’. The firm’s team is spread across its London, Hong Kong and Singapore offices, covering Bermuda, BVI and Cayman law with particular experience in corporate, finance, funds and insolvency work, and litigation.

For more information on specific regions, please click on the tabs below.

  • Asia
  • UK
Acting for ‘a stellar array of clients drawn from across the Asia Pacific region and beyond, which underscores the firm’s status as the best of the best’, Carey Olsen Hong Kong LLP utilises the expertise of managing partner Michael Padarin as a go-to name for fund issues, including the formation, operation and restructuring of funds, particularly those with Cayman law elements. Jeremy Lightfoot leads the litigation practice in Hong Kong and is praised as ‘an outstanding litigation lawyer and an impressive critical thinker’; the litigation team was further bolstered in mid-2023 with the recruitments of Tim Haynes and Matthew Watson, who focus on Cayman and Bermuda issues, respectively. In Carey Olsen Singapore LLP, managing partner Anthony McKenzie also leads the corporate practice, while James Noble, who is praised as ‘quite simply the best of the best’, heads up the litigation, insolvency and restructuring practice. Tom Katsaros is the primary contact in the jurisdiction for investment fund work, and litigator Helen Wang is singled out as ‘very experienced with great cross-jurisdictional knowledge and analysis’.
Key names in Carey Olsen LLP’s London office include managing partner Jasmine Amaria, who focuses on corporate, fund and finance work with a Cayman or BVI aspect, acting for clients in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. Richard Brown is singled out by clients as ‘superb as a lawyer, as a litigator and as a strategist’, and provides ‘a seamless service that is second to none’; he is the primary contact for dispute resolution advice and insolvency issues involving BVI law and was further admitted as a registered associate of the Bermuda Bar in 2023. Counsel Sheba Raza is also a key name to note and ‘always feels part of the team she is working with’.

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