Law firm Appleby Hunter Bailhache has come a long way since its inception as Cayman law firm Hunter & Hunter. The Journal speaks with the managing partner of the Cayman and BVI office, Huw Moses, to find out more on the latest merger for this ever-expanding firm.
Appleby Spurling Hunter and Bailhache Labesse merged 1 September. Why merge with this particular firm?
Both Appleby Spurling Hunter and Jersey-based Bailhache Labesse were built by many talented and dedicated attorneys and staff and each firm each enjoy an excellent reputation in their respective communities and internationally. Both firms have a common culture, common strategy, with like minded people and share a common vision of providing impeccable quality and outstanding service. The firms also shared the same vision of being the premier provider of offshore legal, corporate and trust services. The combination of the firms strengthens each of our historical footholds and enables our collective vision to be a reality whilst bring greater value to our clients and success to our organisation.
Why is this merger significant?
Our clients will continue to benefit from the extensive expertise of the lawyers with whom they are familiar, but that expertise will be supported by a greater depth and breadth of resources, experience and skills. Our clients can expect consistent, coordinated, efficient and responsive service in all of our offices as well as objective guidance regarding jurisdictional choice. Each jurisdictions has become internationally recognised for different key strengths for example Bermuda – insurance, BVI – general corporate finance, Cayman – funds and Jersey structured finance and trusts, to name a few, by combining the firms, we are better able to capitalise on these strengths and offer our clients the services that they require from one global organisation.
Has the structure of the firm changed?
The group operates through a coordinated management structure, which provides for practice groups across all of the offices, the co-ordination of precedents and document production, marketing, client information, infrastructure and support for client service and internal operations.
Senior management is detailed as follows: Peter Bubenzer, group managing partner; James Jardine, group chief executive officer; Shaun Morris, managing partner of the Bermuda office; Huw Moses, managing partner of the Cayman and BVI office; Frances Woo, managing partner of the Hong Kong office; Mike O’Connell, managing partner of the Jersey office; and Warren Cabral, managing partner of the London office.
Furthermore, Judith Collis will be the global head of Corporate & Commercial Practice Group; Andrew Bolton will be the global head of Litigation and Insolvency Practice Group; Timothy Faries will be the global head of Trusts Practice Group; John Bisson will be the global head of the Property Practice Group; and Farah Ballands will be the group head – Fiduciary & Administration Services.
Has the process of merging proceeded smoothly?
The merging of Appleby Spurling Hunter and Bailhache Labesse has been successful, due to a number of reasons.
Our team members have been the key to our success and with them, we will continue to thrive. We will all benefit from the joining of the two firms though access to greater resources.
We all also benefit from excellent full and timely information, both internally, between the two firms and publicly. The offices hosted weekly implementation meetings, weekly communication meetings and introduced counterparts between the two firms very early on, so that relationships could be formed and teams built ready for our 1 September launch. Communications were done both in person and via video conference, so solid relationships could be formed early on in the merger process. Additionally, communications were posted on our global portal which shared internal information and communicated the same message firm wide.
The very first stage of our implementation process was to identify all of the tasks that needed to be done in order to make a seamless transaction. This extensive list involves everyone in the firm across every department. There are important regulatory steps that need to be taken; informing clients, planning new strategies, re branding, coordination of teams, new management structures, new IT systems, sharing of information, new internal processes and documents, announcement parties, the list goes on. By having detailed records and spreadsheets, the responsibilities were assigned to different management teams and the tasks quickly ticked off.
Our entire team has worked hard to build the Appleby brand; this is not just the visual identity of the firm, both the promise of what people can expect when they work the organisation. Through strategic planning and firm intention, we will further implement our vision and build the brand for Appleby Hunter Bailhache. Our revised brand will be rolled out over the next couple of weeks. Our brand is modern; the clean look of the materials and website reflects our philosophy, culture and position as the premier provider of offshore legal, fiduciary & administration services.
On 31 August, we closed business for the last time as Appleby Spurling Hunter and began a new day on 1 September as Appleby Hunter Bailhache. The detailed planning and team meetings paid off and the Appleby group now enters the next phase of its exciting life.
The new group will have over 600 team members, including 44 partners, with offices in Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Jersey and London. In a competitive, global legal marketplace, Appleby Hunter Bailhache will be a stronger business organisation with greater opportunities for a healthy future and professional growth.
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