John Greenfield > Carey Olsen > St Peter Port, Guernsey > Lawyer Profile

John Greenfield

+44 (0)1481 732026 john.greenfield@careyolsen.com View profile View profile

Work Department

Dispute Resolution and Litigation; Trusts and Private Wealth; Restructuring and Insolvency; Regulatory

Position

John is a consultant for the dispute resolution and litigation group in Guernsey where he was previously senior partner.

John undertakes the complete range of major litigation and advocacy work including asset tracing, multi-jurisdictional disputes and commercial and trust litigation. John has been Counsel in many of the major litigation cases before the Royal Court of Guernsey and the Guernsey Court of Appeal and is one of the few Guernsey advocates to have appeared as counsel in the Privy Council. He has been lead counsel in ground-breaking trust litigation cases in the past 12 months. In the case involving a Tchenguiz Family Trust he was successful in obtaining a judgment in favour of creditors of the Trust against the trust assets and in a subsequent judgment obtained an order of the Guernsey Court putting the trust assets into receivership.

John was a founder member of the Guernsey Royal Court Working Party which completely reviewed the island’s Civil Procedure in 2008 and is a member of the UK Fraud Advisory Panel. He is a founder (and only Guernsey member) of Fraudnet, a body of the world’s leading fraud lawyers set up by the International Chamber of Commerce. He is also a Notary Public.

In 2014 John was awarded ACTAPS Offshore Contentious Lawyer of the Year Award. John is one of only five offshore lawyers, and the only lawyer in Guernsey, to be included in the Most Highly Regarded category in the 2015 edition of Who’s Who Legal: Asset Recovery. John is also the only Guernsey lawyer to have been listed in the 2019 edition of Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders Global Elite.

Career

John was enrolled as a Solicitor in England in 1975 where he was a partner in a law firm before moving to Guernsey in 1980. After working as in-house counsel and trust manager for an international merchant bank, John qualified as an advocate with the firm and in the same year became a partner in 1986. 

John is also a member of Carey Olsen LLP, which is the firm’s London office.

Languages

English, written French.

Memberships

UK Fraud Advisory Panel; founder member and only Guernsey member of Fraudnet (set up by the International Chamber of Commerce for its members) and currently a member of its Advisory Board.

Member of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists; John was the first elected Head of the Guernsey Bar in November 2008 and was re-elected to the role in 2010.

Education

University of Hull, Université de Caen Basse-Normandie (1992 Certificat d’Etudes Juridiques Francaise et Normandes); Notary Public 1986.

Leisure

Active sportsman – especially cricket and tennis. Otherwise leisure mostly occupied by family commitments and travel.