Firm Profile > Walkers > Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Walkers Offices
190 ELGIN AVENUE
GEORGE TOWN
GRAND CAYMAN KY1-9001
Cayman Islands
Walkers > The Legal 500 Rankings
Banking, finance and capital markets Tier 1
Philip Paschalides, Rob Jackson and David Collins lead the 'top-notch' practice at Walkers, which handles a wide range of transactions and regulatory advice. Jackson primarily acts for lenders, borrowers and sponsors on project finance transactions, hedge fund and private equity financings, and secured cross-border transactions and financial restructurings; while Paschalides specialises in debt capital market issuances, securitisations and structured products. Elsewhere, James Burch specialises in debt capital markets and structured finance work with extensive experience in CLOs, securitisations and secured note programme structures. The team also has a reputation in the region for routinely handling bet-the-company transactions and is regularly instructed to advise on pathfinder transactions. Another name to note is Paige Gaston-Thiery, who is adept in financing and refinancing mandates and bespoke investor-led restructurings. Sarah Humpleby, Paul Osborne and Hugh Anderson are key senior counsels within the team.
Practice head(s):
Other key lawyers:
Testimonials
‘The Walkers team is top notch – a deep bench of experienced, commercially oriented attorneys that provide prompt feedback. They are very user friendly, and are always able to find workable solutions when problems arise. They manage staffing well and are able to keep up with tight closing timelines and last minute fire drills.’
‘Paul Osborne is exceptional for asset based deals. He has represented many of the principal participants in the fund lending markets for many years now, and it shows. He consistently delivers high quality, commercial advice and is able to propose commercial solutions for any issue that comes up.’
‘Paige Gaston-Thiery and the rest of the team are incredibly responsive, and are very commercial.’
‘Highly responsive and really know their stuff.’
‘Rob Jackson is outstanding. Always available and gives very good advice.’
Key clients
Anchorage
Apollo Management
Bank of America
Blackstone
Cerberus
HarbourVest Partners
Oak Hill Capital Management
Prudential
Pine Bridge
The Carlyle Group
Dispute resolution Tier 1
Walkers has ‘an outstanding team of commercially minded lawyers who have in-depth experience across all aspects of dispute resolution’. The department handles contentious insolvencies, asset recovery issues and hedge fund disputes, fraud disputes, commercial litigation and trusts claims. Spearheaded by Neil Lupton, who possesses a robust restructuring and insolvency practice, the department acted for Latam Airlines Group and Pueco Finance Limited, which successfully applied for the appointment of Provisional Liquidators in conjunction with a US Chapter 11 filing. Shelley White and Colette Wilkins are singled out as ‘highly intellectual, highly practical and highly commercial’ practitioners. Further names to note are contentious insolvency specialist Matthew Goucke, investment funds disputes expert Rupert Bell, and Nick Dunne, who primarily deals with fraud and asset recovery work. Senior counsels Fiona MacAdam and Peter Kendall are other noteworthy advisers.Practice head(s):
Other key lawyers:
Testimonials
‘An outstanding team of commercially minded lawyers who have in-depth experience across all aspects of dispute resolution. The Walkers team is always very solution focused and have some of the best legal minds and strategic thinkers in the Offshore market.’
‘Peter Kendall is a critical thinker who has excellent attention to detail on every aspect of a case.’
‘Quite simply this is the number 1 team in the Cayman Islands. Individually their partners are some of the best in the business but they collaborate and work as a team which means you get access to all of the knowledge and experience. In terms of dispute resolution, insolvency and restructuring they have done it all and are the go to team.’
‘Barnaby Gowrie. One of the brightest minds in Cayman Islands’ law. Barnaby is generally the smartest person in the room but is very approachable and a first choice for liquidators in Cayman.’
‘Rupert Bell. Legally and commercially astute and one of the most strategic minds around.’
‘Chris Keefe. Chris is one of the leading associates in the Cayman Islands. He is an excellent advocate but in recent years he has focused on his advice and strategic thinking, and it is paying dividends. Chris is someone you want to have on your team.’
‘Niall Hanna. Another of the leading associates in the Cayman Islands. Niall has a fantastic ability to cut through the noise and distraction in complex and contentious matters and provides accurate and sensible advice under pressure. He is strategic and commercial and will be a leading name in Cayman in the years to come.’
‘Top RS and litigation firm locally. Uniformly excellent lawyers. User friendly. Practical. Technically excellent.’
‘Great deal of knowledge, advice is practical as well as technical, great availability.’
‘The Walkers approach is very much of the “can do” variety, and they take on challenges from clients with enthusiasm. This practice is brimming with work, but as a client, I never feel that I am anything other than a priority.’
‘The stand out partners are Shelley White and Colette Wilkins, with whom I have toiled in the trenches for ten years on one enormous multi-faceted manner. They are both highly intellectual, highly practical and highly commercial, which is a winning, but rare, combination. The commitment to client objectives is unwavering and the level of partner involvement is excellent (and necessary on complex and high value disputes).’
Key clients
Grant Thornton
Maso Capital Investments Limited
EY Cayman Ltd.
CW Group Holdings Limited
Phoenix Group Holdings
BTU Power Company
Asia Private Credit Fund
BDO CRI
Deloitte & Touche
Investment funds Tier 1
Praised for its ‘ability to synthesise all relevant legal and compliance information regarding the Cayman regime’, Walkers has extensive experience and provides a wide range of advice to hedge funds and private equity funds in particular. Key areas of strength include fund formations and capitalisations, financing issues, buyouts, M&A, joint ventures and downstream-spend transactions. Global managing partner Ingrid Pierce also has particular expertise in managing distressed funds in volatile markets, whereas Caroline Williams has a track record in co-investment and alternative investment vehicles. From a regulatory perspective, the firm was involved with government, regulators and industry bodies to create the new closed-ended funds regulatory regime. Other names to note are Ashley Gunning, Tim Buckley, Rolf Lindsay, Andrew Barker, Theo Lefkos and Bicrom Das; Matt Bernardo and Christine Ballantyne-Drewe are senior counsels with experience in this space.Practice head(s):
Other key lawyers:
Testimonials
‘Walkers is able to synthesize all relevant legal and compliance information that we need to know regarding the Cayman regime and communicate it to us in the most helpful and efficient way, with a thorough analysis. Always prompt to reply, excellent communication and just a pleasure to work with.’
‘Caroline Heal and Jennifer Sangaroonthong are always quick to reply and provide thorough yet understandable advice on all issues and are incredible helpful in helping us to have our questions answered. Excellent communication on the matter itself as well as billing transparency.’
‘Short response time. Proper understanding of our investment fund structure. Highlighting legal & regulatory changes early, including remediation possibilities.’
‘Caroline Heal: good understanding of fund structures and issues. Lucy Frew: great knowledge about complex topics and ability to boil down to current situation and related remediation.’
Key clients
Apollo Management
CVC Capital Partners
First Reserve Corporation
GSO Capital Partners
HarbourVest Partners
Oaktree Capital Management
Pine Brook
Stone Point Capital
The Blackstone Group
The Carlyle Group
Regulatory and compliance Tier 1
The standalone regulatory and risk compliance group at Walkers is singled out for its experience acting as regulatory counsel for a number of the world’s largest investment funds with operations in Cayman. In a recent highlight, the group advised Blackstone Group on the application of the OECD's new Economic Substance laws to certain Blackstone entities, and assisted with the application of the Cayman data protection regime and its applicable requirements. Led globally by Lucy Frew, the team also assists clients with anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist and proliferation financing matters, international sanctions, regulatory capital requirements, investigations and regulatory disputes. A key member of the team is senior counsel Tony De Quintal, who has over nine years experience working for the Financial Services Authority in the UK and the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), and specialises in applications and notifications to the CIMA.
Practice head(s):
Other key lawyers:
Key clients
Anchorage
Apollo Management
Bank of America
Blackstone
Cerberus
CVC Capital Partners
First Reserve Corporation
GSO Capital Partners
HarbourVest Partners
Oak Hill Capital Management
Oaktree Capital Management
PineBridge
Pine Brook
Prudential
Stone Point Capital
The Carlyle Group
Trusts/private client Tier 1
The team at Walkers ‘has a deep and broad knowledge of trusts and related issues, combined with sharp commercial common sense’. David Pytches heads up the non-contentious offering, which handles matters pertaining to the preservation, investment and passing on of private capital. The group also advises institutional trustees, ultra-high-net-worth private clients and family offices on a range of trusts and succession matters, primarily the formation, administration and restructuring of trusts and foundations, private trust companies and charitable and philanthropic ventures, and will and succession planning mandates. The trust litigation practice is led by Shelley White, who ‘is incredibly sharp, responsive and an excellent communicator’. Monique Bhullar, recently promoted partner Clive Thomas and senior counsels Lucy Diggle and Jo-Anne Stephens are other names to note.
Practice head(s):
Other key lawyers:
Testimonials
‘The Walkers Cayman Private Clients Trust Team truly works as a team, ensuring a seamless and timely delivery to it’s clients of relevant, practical and timely advice.’
‘Lucy Diggle – advises on both contentious and non contentious matters so is a really useful part of the team being able to highlight aspects of seemingly non contentious advice that may lead to issues down the road.’
‘Monique Bhullar – very practical. David Pytches – An all round resource.’
‘The team at Walkers has a deep and broad knowledge of trusts and related issues, combined with sharp commercial common sense. The team is at the forefront of thought leadership in this area and clients can be sure that all of the angles and nuances will be covered in the advice.’
‘The Cayman contentious trust team is led by Shelley White, who is incredibly sharp, responsive, and an excellent communicator, able to translate highly technical matters into clear and effective client friendly advice. She was supported on my matter by Lucy Diggle (senior counsel), who is very much in the same mould as Shelley. They make an impressive team.’
‘Clive Thomas and Anthony Mourginos – Clive has been exceptional in his delivery of legal knowledge and expertise. He has been very straight forward in his conversations when it comes to our personal client situations. We are pleased with his work. Clive has been great with his follow up and his deep understanding of the work that we have asked him to do. Anthony as well has been prompt and a super resource for us to work with.’
‘The team has an excellent segregation of roles among individual members who are able to assist in areas of their individual expertise. They can confine their work scope in issues of priority and importance without over killing any issues of concern.’
‘Individuals who worked with me demonstrated a high degree of professionalism and were able to assist in providing thorough analysis of the case and pragmatic solutions to issues without losing sight of other related problems. In particular, they showed care and concern of clients’ need and were able to follow up the actions required without missing any key components to settle the matter.’
Key clients
Butterfield Trust
CIBC
Genesis Trust
Intertrust
Rawlinson & Hunter
Zedra
Grant Thornton, Saad Investments Company Limited (In Official Liquidation)
Corporate and commercial Tier 2
At Walkers, the team advises major public and private companies across a wide range of sectors on the full spectrum of corporate and commercial law. M&A, restructuring work, joint ventures, shareholder arrangements and corporate restructurings are among the department’s key areas of strengths. In addition to Rob Jackson’s prominence in the corporate space, the team also includes David Collins, who has extensive experience advising financial institutions, hedge funds, private equity funds, corporations, issuers and institutional investors on corporate transactions. The firm has also seen continued growth in the CLO space; the practice is a key name for established managers as well as new entrants to the area. James Burch, Philip Paschalides, Paige Gaston-Thiery and senior counsel Justin Hart are the other names to note.
Practice head(s):
Other key lawyers:
Key clients
Anchorage
Apollo Management
Bank of America
Blackstone
Cerberus
HarbourVest Partners
Oak Hill Capital Management
Prudential
Pine Bridge
The Carlyle Group
Insurance/reinsurance Tier 2
Working closely with the firm’s regulatory, corporate, finance and dispute resolution specialists, Walkers' insurance group is instructed on a wide range of matters in the insurance and reinsurance space. In addition to its expertise in establishing and licensing life and non-life insurers and reinsurers, the team also acts on financing arrangements, M&A, restructurings, alternative risk transfer structures and regulatory issues, aided by the firm’s ‘strong knowledge of regulatory requirements’. Insurance-linked securities expert Philip Paschalides, global regulatory head Lucy Frew, David Collins and Nick Dunne are all key names to note, handling an assortment of insurance and reinsurance mandates.
Practice head(s):
Other key lawyers:
Testimonials
‘Strong knowledge of regulatory requirements. Understand the business – not just the law. Responsive. Good contacts and relationship with regulator.’
‘David Collins – Highly qualified, has both accounting and legal background. Sarah Dombowsky – Associate who is focused on serving needs of clients, responding quickly to questions and queries and highly accurate and technically correct in all respects.’
Walkers > Firm Profile
Global Managing Partner: Ingrid Pierce
Cayman Islands Managing Partner: Tim Buckley
Number of Cayman Islands partners: 35
Number of partners worldwide: 124
Number of Cayman Islands lawyers: 103
Number of lawyers worldwide: 380
About Walkers
Walkers is a leading international law firm that provides legal, corporate, fiduciary and compliance services to global corporations, financial institutions, capital markets participants and investment fund managers. Clients include FORTUNE 100 and FTSE 100 companies, as well as the most innovative firms and institutions across the financial markets. Walkers’ lawyers are experienced, entrepreneurial, committed to client service and held in high regard by clients for their ability to deliver outstanding legal advice.
Walkers is experienced in all types of international and cross-border transactions, covering a broad range of sectors, with a particular focus on both contentious and non-contentious corporate and finance law, investment funds, private equity, structured products, capital markets, private capital and trusts. Walkers delivers excellent, clear, practical advice based on an in-depth knowledge of the legal, regulatory and commercial environment in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Jersey and Ireland. The firm is consistently ranked in the top tier of leading global legal directories. Clients describe Walkers as “a top-class firm,” and “stellar,” adding: “They are dedicated and responsive…”
Asset Finance
Walkers’ asset finance team advises on all aspects of the financing, leasing and trading of aircraft, aircraft engines, helicopters and other heavy transportation assets, such as rolling stock and vessels. The team consists of specialists who have extensive experience in complex onshore and offshore asset finance transactions and act for lending lessors, lessees and financiers.
Contact: James Burch and Sarah Humpleby
Banking
Walkers’ banking team is one of the most experienced transactional banking teams in the offshore market. It advises agents, arrangers, banks, international financial institutions and corporations on an extensive range of domestic and international cross-border banking and finance transactions. It advises on all aspects of loan and credit facilities, ranging from short-term unsecured loans to multi-currency syndicated loans and revolving facilities, leveraged finance, acquisition finance, asset finance, debt restructuring, structured finance and capital markets.
Contact: Rob Jackson and David Collins
Corporate
Walkers’ corporate group advises global corporations and private equity managers on a wide variety of transactions and company, commercial and corporate law matters. The team has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry and clients include international companies of all sizes across all industry sectors, banks, private equity providers, a number of state and government entities, and sovereign wealth funds. The team is highly experienced in advising on all corporate matters including mergers, acquisitions and disposals, SPACs, corporate re-structuring, joint ventures, shareholders’ agreements and commercial contracts and agreements of every nature.
Contact: Tim Buckley and Rolf Lindsay
Insolvency & Dispute Resolution
Walkers advises investment managers, companies, directors, general partners and insolvency practitioners on all aspects of litigation, corporate recovery, restructuring, insolvency and dispute resolution. The team is internationally recognised as having the premier insolvency and corporate recovery team amongst the International Financial centre law firms, and has extensive experience in multi-jurisdictional restructurings and litigation. Among the team are qualified arbitrators and trained mediators. They advise creditors, debtors, private equity and hedge funds and other stakeholders and have worked with many of the leading international law and accounting firms.
Contact: Neil Lupton and Colette Wilkins
Insurance
Walkers has a multidisciplinary insurance and reinsurance team that has deep industry experience, providing clients with market leading legal, regulatory and licencing advice for the establishment, structuring and on-going operation of all forms of insurance vehicles. The team prides itself on its ability to offer practical industry advice to its clients based on first-hand experience and knowledge. The team provides services to the world’s leading insurers and reinsurers, capital markets and fund specialists, as well as contentious and non-contentious re/insurance law advice to policyholders, cedants, reinsurers, and retrocessionaires.
Contact: Philip Paschalides and Tony De Quintal
Investment Funds
Walkers’ investment funds group is one of the largest specialist investment funds teams worldwide. They advise many of the world’s most prominent asset managers, fund promoters and institutional banks and investors on all aspects of offshore investment funds including fund formation, structuring, regulation, fund restructuring, fund re-domiciliation, all aspects of distressed funds, termination and on-going general advice to investment funds and managers.
Contact: Ingrid Pierce and Melissa Lim
Private Capital & Trusts
Walkers’ private capital and trusts group is a multijurisdictional team of specialist lawyers who focus on serving the needs of high-net individuals, entrepreneurs, family offices, professional trustees and onshore advisers. The team’s work includes establishing private capital investment funds, direct investing, private and commercial trusts, wealth and succession planning, wills and probate, charitable and philanthropic trusts and entities, trust litigation and a broad range of corporate services designed to support back office operations. Clients have come to reply on Walkers as a trusted advisor for its expertise, discretion and individually tailored advice with a long-term, multi-generational perspective.
Contact: David Pytches and Clive Thomas
Private Equity
Walkers’ private equity group acts for most of the world’s largest and most successful private equity firms. It advises on all aspects of fund formation and capitalisation of investment vehicles, public and private mergers and acquisitions and down-stream transactions, subscription line financing, leveraged buyouts, group restructuring, secured lending, take-private and IPO formation and due diligence.
Contacts: Caroline Williams and Rolf Lindsay
Regulatory & Risk Advisory
Walkers’ regulatory and risk advisory team comprises dedicated specialist financial regulatory and risk management advisory lawyers who bring unique insight from having worked inside various national regulators, including the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority. The team regularly advises non-regulated and regulated financial institutions on the interpretation and application of regulatory rules, policies and procedures. Clients include a wide range of businesses in the banking, insurance and reinsurance, investment fund, administrator, fiduciary and investment management, advice, broker-dealer and arranger sectors.
Contact: Lucy Frew and Andrew Howarth
Structured Products & Capital Markets (SPCM)
Walkers’ SPCM team advises the world’s leading international financial institutions, managers, arrangers, agents and trustees on the full range of debt, equity, equity-linked, credit-linked and asset-backed securities, insurance-linked securities, derivatives and other structured products. The team’s expertise includes securitisations, repackagings, collateralised bond and loan offerings, note programmes, commercial paper and depository receipt programmes and convertible debt and warrants issues.
Contact: Philip Paschalides and Paige Gaston-Thiery
Walkers Professional Services
Walkers Professional Services (“WPS”) is a leading provider of corporate, corporate governance, regulatory compliance and fiduciary services to corporate and institutional clients across global financial centres.
WPS offers market leading expertise and value for spend, and its unique integrated legal and professional services team, combined with state of the art technology, positions WPS to deliver on this.
Contacts: Anne Dolan (Corporate Services) and Steven Manning (Fiduciary Services)
Main Contacts
| Department | Name | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset Finance | James Burch | james.burch@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 4634 |
| Asset Finance | Sarah Humpleby | sarah.humpleby@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 6843 |
| Banking | Rob Jackson | rob.jackson@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 914 4281 |
| Banking | David Collins | david.collins@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 4503 |
| Corporate, Private Equity | Rolf Lindsay | rolf.lindsay@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 914 6307 |
| Corporate | Tim Buckley | tim.buckley@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 4646 |
| Insolvency & Dispute Resolution | Neil Lupton | neil.lupton@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 914 4286 |
| Insolvency & Dispute Resolution | Colette Wilkins | colette.wilkins@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 914 4215 |
| Investment Funds | Ingrid Pierce | ingrid.pierce@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 4667 |
| Investment Funds | Melissa Lim | melissa.lim@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 4512 |
| Insurance, Structured Products & Capital Markets | Philip Paschalides | philip.paschalides@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 4675 |
| Insurance | Tony de Quintal | tony.dequintal@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 914 6388 |
| Private Capital & Trusts | David Pytches | david.pytches@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 6831 |
| Private Capital & Trusts | Clive Thomas | clive.thomas@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 6824 |
| Private Equity | Caroline Williams | caroline.williams@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 914 6342 |
| Regulatory & Risk Advisory | Lucy Frew | lucy.frew@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 4676 |
| Regulatory & Risk Advisory | Andrew Howarth | andrew.howarth@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 4561 |
| Structured Products & Capital Markets | Paige Gaston-Thiery | paige.gaston-thiery@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 914 6314 |
| WPS Corporate Services | Anne Dolan | anne.dolan@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 7620 |
| WPS Fiduciary Services | Steven Manning | steven.manning@walkersglobal.com | +1 345 814 7612 |
Staff Figures
Cayman Islands partners : 35 Partners worldwide : 124 Cayman Islands lawyers : 103 Lawyers worldwide : 380Languages
Afrikaans Bengali Cantonese English French German Greek Dutch Hindi Bahasa (Malay and Indonesia) Mandarin Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin) Spanish Portuguese Several Nigerian local languagesMemberships
Lex Mundi - The World's Leading Association of Independent Law FirmsTop Tier Firm Rankings
- Banking, finance and capital markets
- Dispute resolution
- Investment funds
- Regulatory and compliance
- Trusts/private client