Collas Crill

collascrill.com

Michael is a litigation lawyer, specialising in insolvency, regulatory/ public law, trust and other financial services disputes. He is a qualified Guernsey Advocate and BVI Attorney and maintains an active litigation practice in both jurisdictions, having previously acted as head of litigation and managing partner of the firm's BVI office. Since joining Collas Crill in 2009, Michael has taken a leading role in a number of significant and high profile matters, including advising the liquidators of Landsbanki Guernsey Limited in relation to all aspects of the liquidation of the £120 million Guernsey subsidiary of the failed Icelandic Bank, and Sark Electricity Limited in its challenge to the implementation of pricing regulation. Michael is frequently instructed for individuals and companies in disputes with regulatory bodies and state agencies. In 2019, Michael was appointed to a four year term as Chairman of the Complaints Panel of the Administrative Decision Review Board.

Wayne is a qualified Guernsey Advocate and BVI Attorney, working with a broad range of regulated entities and investment funds on fundraising, transaction and investment structuring, commercial contracts and mergers and acquisitions. As one of the leaders of Collas Crill's risk and regulatory team he also regularly advises businesses on regulatory compliance including money-laundering issues, listing rules requirements, competition law, data protection, ESG matters and Guernsey financial services regulation more generally.

Gareth is a litigation lawyer who specialises in trust, company (including directors' duties), insolvency, professional negligence and other financial services disputes. He also has an active practice in semi-contentious trust matters. A qualified Guernsey Advocate, Gareth is also the firm's Guernsey Managing Partner. Gareth has been involved in a number of trials in the Royal Court of Guernsey and several appeals to the Court of Appeal and Privy Council. He acted for the successful non-executive director defendants in the long running, multi-billion dollar Carlyle litigation that eventually concluded in 2020. He also recently acted for the Registrar of the Chambre de Discipline (the disciplinary body for Advocates) on the first ever appeal of a disciplinary matter to the Court of Appeal, where he was successful

Annabel is a Senior Associate who advises on banking and finance transactions (including real estate finance and Islamic finance), mergers and acquisitions, funds and other general corporate and commercial matters. Annabel relocated to BVI in September 2022 after spending four years post-qualification in the firm's Guernsey office. She is admitted to practise as a solicitor in the British Virgin Islands, and England and Wales.

Jessica Burgess

Jessica is an Associate in Guernsey. She specialises in matters relating to wills, probate and estate administration. She also specialises in capacity matters, advising on local guardianships, lasting powers of attorney matters and also the recognition of foreign equivalents.

Angela has been a Partner in our multi-award winning private client and trusts team in Guernsey since 2012. Angela's core strengths are in establishing, reorganising and winding up Guernsey trust and foundation structures (including pension and gratuity schemes) and also assisting trustees in navigating the administration of those structures in accordance with their fiduciary duties. As a former litigator prior to moving to Guernsey, Angela is great at spotting thorny issues early and assisting trustees and beneficiaries to resolve conflict before things escalate into litigation. Day to day, Angela's caseload is very varied. Recently she has established private trust companies and private trustee foundations with multiple underlying trusts and companies for both domestic and international families in conjunction with some of the UK's leading City firms. She has established multi-million dollar pensions and end of service gratuity schemes for multiple UAE companies and she has also assisted trustees in deliberating "momentous decisions" and mediating the interests of warring beneficiaries.

Thomas Cutts-Watson

A qualified Guernsey advocate, Tom specialises in contentious and semi-contentious trust matters, appearing for trustees, beneficiaries, protectors and other power-holders, usually with an international or cross-border element.

Amy is a Senior Associate and Advocate in Guernsey. Her practice encompasses a wide range of work, including criminal, financial services disputes and regulatory. Amy has a wealth of advocacy experience, having spent 10 years working as a criminal lawyer in England and Wales. She assists individuals both at the police station and in Court, specialising in the defence of white collar and general crime. In addition to her criminal practice, Amy assists financial services businesses and their clients in all aspects of legal and regulatory work, including advising on: the formal and informal freezing of funds; the forfeiture of funds; the Guernsey disclosure and consent regime; and the potential regulatory implications of such matters.

Cerisse is a Group Partner in Guernsey. She specialises in all aspects of Guernsey trust and private client law and regularly advises trustees, family offices, high net worth individuals and intermediaries on the creation, restructuring and winding up of trusts and a wide scope of cross-jurisdictional fiduciary transactions. Cerisse has invaluable experience working within a trust company on both legal and direct client matters. She has a broad knowledge of the challenges and pitfalls for trustees plus the practical aspects of trusteeship and requirements of corporate service providers and their clients.

Elena is a Group Partner at Collas Crill based in Guernsey. She advises trustees, individuals, financial institutions and family offices in relation to trust, succession planning and regulatory issues.

Jason acts for numerous high net-worth individuals with property portfolios as well as banks, companies and other clients with commercial and residential property portfolios. He also acts for high net-worth individuals moving to Guernsey and sits on the Guernsey Property Forum. In his role as Senior Partner, Jason acts as an ambassador for the Collas Crill group across its offices in Guernsey, Jersey, Cayman and BVI, and helps raise its profile across the globe. As the most senior figure within the firm, Jason is involved in the strategic direction and decision-making of the firm.

Ben is a Guernsey Advocate and Partner of Collas Crill in Guernsey. His practice is focused on contentious and semi-contentious trust work, advising both trustees and beneficiaries and appearing in the Royal Court in Guernsey on those matters. He has a particular interest in the issues around the succession to wealth by the next generation. Recent work: Acting for the beneficiary of a trust in a proposed restructuring of an UHNW family's wealth following a dispute with their trustee. Planning for the splintering-off of our client's interests, and negotiating the necessary protections. Acting for the corporate trustee of a discretionary trust settled for the benefit of the Settlor's children. The Settlor was domiciled in a jurisdiction in which Sharia law would have applied on succession. The trust imported aspects of Sharia law, while also providing for the settlor's daughters. A family dispute resulted in various challenges relating to the trust. Acting for the corporate trustee of a trust during the course of a significant family dispute. The aim was to divide the assets of the trust against a lack of any agreement between the beneficiaries as to how that should be done. Acting for two beneficiaries of a Guernsey trust in an application seeking disclosure of information from the trustees (who were family members) – Patel v Patel (Judgment 36/2016)

Christian is among the leading commercial litigators at the Guernsey Bar with a particular expertise in contentious trust related matters and corporate disputes. He leads a team of talented lawyers across Guernsey, Jersey and Cayman with strong expertise in contentious and non-contentious trust and estate matters. Christian is a CEDR-accredited mediator and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He regularly acts as mediator or arbitrator in trust, financial services and commercial disputes in Guernsey and Jersey.

Simon is a Group Partner in Guernsey. He advises on all aspects of commercial law, with a particular focus on public equity and debt, banking and finance (including real estate, private client and fund finance), private equity investment and mergers and acquisitions. Simon regularly leads cross border matters involving our Guernsey, Jersey, BVI and Cayman teams and acts as lead counsel to a number of Guernsey based Banks and family offices. Recent highlights: Acting for Credit Agricole in respect of their €50bn Structured Debt Instruments Issuance Programme. Acting for SafeCharge International Group Limited, an AIM Listed company, on its successful $889m takeover by the Nuvei Corporation by way of a Guernsey scheme of arrangement. Advising Pizza Hut UK on the early settlement and de-listing of their TISE listed debt securities as part of their wider CVA. Acting for Intertrust in their €500m bond issuance and the refinance of their existing debt facility. Acting for Ferro-Alloy Resources in their migration from the BVI and joint listing on London and Kazak Stock Exchanges. Acting as lead counsel to a Guernsey family office in the acquisition of two Guernsey commercial real estate companies. Acting for Fairtree Hospitality Real Estate Private Equity Limited Partnership in the refinance of their group's property investment portfolio.

David is a Senior Associate in the Guernsey office. He has more than 15 years' experience of general litigation, with a particular focus on contentious wills and estates, as well as high value personal injury and complex medical negligence actions. David advises on all aspects of contentious wills and estates matters, including claims for financial provision under the Inheritance (Guernsey) Law, 2011, challenges to the validity of a Will on the grounds of undue influence, lack of testamentary capacity and want of knowledge and approval, and also contested executorship applications. His personal injury and medical negligence practice sees him accept instructions from both Plaintiffs and Defendants, and has represented some of the largest insurers in the UK. He has a particular focus on high-value RTAs, complex brain injury and birth defect/traumatic birth cases. David is also admitted as solicitor of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the territory of the Virgin Islands, where he has been heavily involved in providing assistance to our BVI Dispute Resolution Team in a number of significant medical negligence cases being litigated in the BVI High Court

Ben is an Advocate and Senior Associate in Guernsey. Ben advises on all aspects of commercial law with a particular focus on banking and finance (including real estate finance, Islamic finance and fund finance), mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters. Ben regularly works with our BVI, Cayman and Jersey corporate and trust teams on cross-jurisdictional finance, corporate and trust matters. Ben also assists the Corporate, Finance and Funds team in their other core areas including funds, data protection and risk and regulatory.

David has more than 40 years' experience in corporate law, having practised for 30 years in Guernsey and 10 years in London prior to that. He specialises in corporate finance, insurance, offshore funds, employment law, trusts and regulatory issues and is highly regarded as one of Guernsey's leading corporate lawyers. He is also a non-executive director of a number of investment and insurance companies, both listed and unlisted.

Steve is an associate in Guernsey where he is building a broad practice in corporate advisory, acquisitions, collective investment schemes, payment services regulations and financial services regulation. He has experience and a specific interest in cryptoassets and FinTech applications, particularly with the tokenisation of real-world assets, investment schemes offered to retail consumers and the use of cryptoassets in collective investment vehicles.

Paul Nettleship

Paul heads up the real estate team in Guernsey. He has a broad practice covering local real estate and private client matters. This includes advising on commercial property development, acquisitions, and disposals (both freehold and leasehold); funding and security over real property; planning matters; property disputes; and small business acquisitions and disposals. He acts for landlords, tenants, funders, brokers, P2P lenders, and private and high street banks. As well as Paul's commercial property business, his private client practice includes advising and acting for clients moving to the island, will drafting and inheritance matters, and guardianship issues. He generally oversees the firm's conveyancing practice.

Ben is an Associate in the Guernsey office. He has advised on a number of cases in Guernsey, as well as cross-jurisdictional matters, involving our areas of expertise including: contentious risk and regulatory matters; contentious trusts; insolvency and restructuring; debt enforcement; and corporate, director and shareholder disputes. Ben previously gained experience at the firm as a paralegal and trainee solicitor where he completed seats in the firm's Corporate, Finance and Funds, International Private Client and Trusts and UK Property teams, as well as the Dispute Resolution team.

$David O\"Hanlon$

David O\"Hanlon

David has more than 40 years' experience in corporate law, having practised for 30 years in Guernsey and 10 years in London prior to that. He specialises in corporate finance, insurance, offshore funds, employment law, trusts and regulatory issues and is highly regarded as one of Guernsey's leading corporate lawyers. He is also a non-executive director of a number of investment and insurance companies, both listed and unlisted. David has acted for trustees, investment banks and beneficiaries in contentious or semi-contentious matters, such as defending trustees against claims for breach of trust, acting in relation to variations of trust and advising trustees and beneficiaries on their obligations and rights in respect of the trusts. Recent public matters include: Walker et al –v- Egerton-Vernon et al in which David acted for one of the former trustees of a settlement established by the late entrepreneur Jack Walker in defending a claim in excess of £100 million (and settled on confidential terms). Corporate Disputes David advises directors, shareholders and corporate service providers on contentious corporate matters such as shareholder or board disputes, claims against directors and advice on issues such as potential conflicts of interest. Recent work includes acting for the Independent Directors in Carlyle Capital Corporation Limited (in liquidation) and ors –v- Conway Jr and ors in their successful defence of a claim for in excess of $1 billion brought by the liquidators of Carlyle Capital Corporation Limited (in liquidation).

Nin is a Group Partner in Guernsey. She is a well established dispute resolution practitioner with a loyal client base comprising finance services businesses and those from other regulated sectors, spanning risk and regulatory, corporate disputes and contentious trust matters many of which have multi-jurisdictional/international elements. She leads the risk and regulatory team in Guernsey to deliver a seamless offering to clients with complex and varied needs. Nin works closely with the Jersey-based risk and regulatory team to ensure that clients with a presence across the Channel Islands are able to receive a blended Channel Islands service. Nin has a strong sanctions practice that extends across transactional, advisory and contentious matters and is an expert in this legally complex and important developing area of practice. Nin has an established international network where clients require cross-jurisdictional sanctions advice.

Jason is Collas Crill's Group Managing Partner. He is responsible for setting and implementing the group's strategy together with the Strategy Board and Management Committee. Jason has been a partner of the firm since 2007, became Managing Partner in Guernsey in 2010 then Group Managing Partner in 2012. He led the firm's mergers in the Channel Islands, Cayman and BVI. Jason has been instrumental in evolving Collas Crill's brand to challenge the 'traditional law firm' attitude with a focus on exceeding client expectations and reflecting the firm's core value of being easy to do business with. He has completed a number of leadership programmes including Leading Professional Service Firms with Harvard Business School and Professional Service Firm Leader with Cambridge Judge Business School. Previously, Jason worked for 'magic circle' firm Linklaters. Before joining Collas Day in 2007, he was Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at Cable & Wireless in Guernsey. Jason relocated to Jersey in 2019.

Joanne heads up our wills and estates team in Guernsey, having led an international offshore private client practice for more than 10 years. Joanne specialises in estate planning and advising on inheritance matters, focusing on complex wills for both local and non-resident individuals. She advises on all aspects of estate administration, from undertaking executorships, advising on Guernsey's probate procedures, dealing with intestacies (where someone has died without a will), to preparing instruments of variation and obtaining Guernsey grants of probate and representation. Joanne and her team also advise upon local guardianships and powers of attorney, and the recognition of foreign equivalents, property matters with estate connections and a variety of other private client matters. Joanne also acts as the Primary Deputy Registrar of the Ecclesiastical Court of Guernsey which oversees the issuing of documentation such as grants of representation and local marriage licences. Advising UHNW individual (GBP £700+ million) in relation to his estate planning and potential claims against his estate post death. Acting as lead advisor for UHNW client with assets in C.I., South Africa and Scotland co-ordinating multi jurisdiction team of lawyers and tax advisors in relation to lifetime succession planning and involving trusts, foundations and will drafting. Acting for HNW individual (GBP £75+ million) in relation to estate planning and the establishment of trust structures over Guernsey, Canadian and French company assets. Acting as Attorney for HNW individual with physical incapacity (management of assets with value in excess of £2+ million).

Laura is an Associate in Guernsey, having first joined the firm as a trainee solicitor in September 2021. She qualified as a Solicitor of England and Wales in 2023.

Emma is an Advocate and Senior Associate in Guernsey. Emma advises on all aspects of commercial dispute resolution with a particular focus on contentious and semi-contentious trust matters. She regularly advises corporate trustees and beneficiaries alike on the full spectrum of trust disputes from breach of trust claims to information requests. In addition to trust matters, Emma regularly assists clients in respect of commercial disputes and contentious risk and regulatory matters, including enforcement action. Emma also has considerable experience acting for Insured parties.

James is a Partner in Guernsey. James advises on all aspects of commercial dispute resolution with a particular focus on insolvency matters. He regularly advises insolvency practitioners, creditors and directors alike on all aspect of insolvency matters from appointments to directions applications. Additionally, James has experience in contentious trusts matters. James advises on all aspects of commercial dispute resolution with a particular focus on insolvency matters. He regularly advises insolvency practitioners, creditors and directors alike on all aspect of insolvency matters from appointments to directions applications. Additionally, James has experience regarding other matters in the core areas of the Dispute Resolution team including Corporate Disputes and Contentious Trusts.

Paul advises on all elements of investment fund establishment, regulation and downstream transactional work. His clients include venture capital, private equity, real estate and hedge fund managers based in the key fund markets of London, New York and Asia with a fast-growing following in South Africa. Always having taken a commercially-minded approach, in 2021 Paul moved to a consultancy role with the firm alongside an external position as founding partner of a venture capital firm. This brings unique and invaluable experience and perspective to the team in advising fund managers.