Commercial law firm Solomon Harris has relocated from the second floor to the third floor of FirstCaribbean House and in the process has more than trebled its office space to almost 9,000 square feet.
Staff gathers at the commercial law firm Solomon Harris, which has relocated from the second floor to the third floor of FirstCaribbean House. Photo: Basia Pioro |
The firm has come a long way since it opened its doors in 1998 in the same building (then known as Barclays House) with accommodation for just three lawyers and two secretaries.
Additional space was taken after that but by 2006 the firm had reached the point where its growth was being constrained because of a shortage of space.
“We had been weighing up our options for a while,’ said Senior Partner, Sophia Harris. ‘We were very keen to stay in FirstCaribbean House not only because of the quality of the building but also the location and when we heard that Marsh Management were planning to move out to Governor’s Square we immediately approached the Bank with a view to taking over their space. We knew that this would secure for us the room to grow that we desperately needed.”
In a few weeks time, the 13th lawyer will join the firm bringing the total staff to 24 and according to Paul Scrivener, the partner who heads the firm’s investment funds group, further recruitment is anticipated during the course of 2007.
“We are looking for at least one further funds lawyer in the near term and Laura Hatfield, who was appointed a partner at the beginning of this year, is aiming to add another lawyer to her Insolvency, Restructuring and Dispute Resolution Group by the end of 2007,” says Scrivener.
He said Solomon Harris’s new location enables the firm to double in size before it needs to look for more space, which means the firm has secured a prime business location for its growth in the immediate future.
As the firm approaches its 10th anniversary in 2008, Mrs. Harris, Mr. Scrivener and Ms Hatfield are clearly proud of what has been achieved so far with the firm having firmly established itself as a well-respected niche commercial law firm among its larger and longer established competitors. In the latest edition of UK publication, Legal 500, the firm was ranked joint second in the Cayman Islands alongside Appleby Hunter Bailache and Ogier and was described as a well known name in the market and considered to be one of the best independent firms in the Cayman Islands.
“We liked that comment,’ Mrs. Harris said. ‘We feel that our independent position as one of the remaining major firms in the Cayman Islands which is not tied into a large global law firm is a positive for us and a feature that many of our clients appreciate in terms of both responsiveness and cost effectiveness.”
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