Following the opening of a Hong Kong office in January this year, offshore law firm Mourant Ozannes has opened an office in the British Virgin Islands. Mourant Ozannes advises on the laws of four of the world’s most important offshore financial centres: the BVI, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey, from these locations and from offices in Hong Kong and London.
Mourant Ozannes’ BVI office will focus on corporate, international finance, investment funds, investment business regulation and insolvency and litigation services.
Jersey based partner Michael Williams, who has extensive corporate and banking experience and is a BVI qualified solicitor, is relocating to BVI to oversee the establishment of the office. He is joined by two new Mourant Ozannes’ partners, Rachael McDonald and Shaun Folpp.
Ms McDonald, who specialises in corporate and finance work, joins Mourant Ozannes from Ogier in BVI. She has practised in BVI for the last six years and is a BVI notary public. Ms McDonald has worked previously for Clifford Chance in London and Chapman Tripp in New Zealand. She leads the global BVI corporate and banking and finance teams.
Mr. Folpp joins Mourant Ozannes from Ogier in the Cayman Islands. He worked previously as the head of commercial and chancery appeals at the Court of Appeal in London. Mr. Folpp leads Mourant Ozannes’ BVI litigation and insolvency practice, and has extensive experience in both contentious and non-contentious insolvency matters, as well as general commercial disputes.
The three Mourant Ozannes partners based in BVI work closely with BVI qualified lawyers across the firm and Mourant Ozannes is now able to provide BVI legal advice directly from BVI and from its offices in Asian, American and European time zones.
Mourant Ozannes Cayman Managing Partner Neal Lomax said, “BVI is one of the world’s leading offshore financial centres. We are seeing increasing demand from clients and intermediaries for BVI legal services across our practice areas. In response to this demand, we are committed to establishing a top tier practice in the jurisdiction.”
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