Carey Olsen names six new partners as part of the firm’s continued expansion
The new partners are Annette Alexander from the Guernsey corporate practice, Kate Andrews and James Willmott from the Jersey corporate practice, Keith Dixon and Alexa Saunders from the Jersey trusts and private wealth practice and Jeremy Garrood from the Jersey litigation practice.
Our chairman, John Kelleher, said: “Our new partners have earned their place through their exceptional technical knowledge and dedication to client service. They join the partner group at a very exciting time for Carey Olsen and we look forward to their contribution in the years to come.
"We are expanding rapidly across our offices and our partners are consistently instructed on the most high profile cross-border matters, reflecting Carey Olsen's position at the forefront of the offshore legal world."
We are the largest law firm in the Channel Islands and the fourth largest offshore law firm in the world*. We have expanded our headcount by 10% over the past 12 months and now have 200 lawyers. We have appointed 11 partners in total in the year, including new partners in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Singapore.
This announcement follows partner Sam Dawson's arrival into our rapidly-growing Cayman Islands dispute resolution and insolvency practice.
PARTNER PROFILES
Annette Alexander advises clients on a broad range of corporate matters, including investment funds, finance and general corporate, with a particular emphasis on listed funds and private equity. She has a wide range of experience across the corporate and commercial sector and acts for many large fund promoters and financial institutions both locally and internationally. She advises on all aspects of investment fund formation, regulation and operation as well as group reorganisations and general corporate structuring. Prior to joining Carey Olsen's Guernsey office in 2001, Annette worked for Clayton Utz in Australia. She was called as an advocate of the Royal Court of Guernsey in 2008.
Kate Andrews joined Carey Olsen in 2013 and became a Jersey advocate in February 2016. Kate has over 20 years' experience in acquisition finance. She previously worked in London, first with Clifford Chance and then with White & Case before joining Norton Rose. She also completed secondments at two investment banks. Kate works on a broad range of finance transactions, including the issuance of high yield bonds, complex acquisition finance structures, fund finance and other banking work. She works closely with lawyers and clients in both London and New York.
Sam Dawson became attorney-at-law in the Cayman Islands in 2006 and was as a partner at Solomon Harris prior to joining Carey Olsen. He has extensive experience litigating complex cross-border commercial disputes with a primary focus on the financial services sector. He advises and represents financial institutions, hedge funds, limited partnerships, independent directors, shareholders and service providers on all aspects of commercial litigation. Sam also has particular expertise in the field of insolvency and restructuring and is regularly instructed to act for liquidators and receivers (including foreign appointees), management, security holders, investors, and unsecured creditors in relation to both contentious and non-contentious matters.
Keith Dixon joined Carey Olsen in 2008 from another offshore law firm. After qualifying as an advocate in Jersey in 1997, he worked predominately as a litigator on significant civil and criminal cases before taking up a position as a private client lawyer in 2001. Keith now has a specialised commercial and private trust, fiduciary and notarial practice and advises global and institutional trustees, family offices and high-net-worth private clients on commercial and private trusts, foundations, charitable and not-for-profit organizations, succession, pension and estate planning issues as well as on associated regulatory and compliance matters.
Jeremy Garrood is an experienced offshore practitioner and Jersey advocate who has been with the firm since 2012. He has worked at the Bar in London, Bermuda, the Caribbean and the Channel Islands, handling cases across the core offshore disciplines of trust, insolvency and company litigation. Jeremy has strong insolvency and restructuring experience, dealing with cross-border insolvencies, asset recovery/tracing and receiverships. He continues to be instructed in complex company law cases concerning minority shareholder actions, corporate governance disputes and schemes of arrangement. As a trusts lawyer his practice ranges from uncontroversial restructuring to truly contentious breach of trust claims across private wealth and commercial trust contexts.
Alexa Saunders was a senior associate in the trusts group of another Jersey law firm and qualified as a Jersey advocate in 2009 before joining Carey Olsen in 2011. She has a broad trust practice advising on the establishment of new trust structures, drafting trust and ancillary instruments and advising trustees in connection with the ongoing administration of trusts. She advises in connection with private family trusts, employee benefit trusts and pension trusts. Alexa is regularly involved in non- and semi-contentious trust proceedings, including applications by trustees for directions from the Royal Court or for the rectification of trust instruments and ancillary documents.
James Willmott's practice covers a wide range of corporate activities with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and private equity transactions. He also has significant experience advising on joint ventures, reorganisations, start-ups and technical and regulatory matters (in particular company law and competition, insurance, banking and other financial services regulation). James began his career at Allen & Overy, where he worked in London, Singapore and Bratislava. Before joining Carey Olsen in 2010 he also worked at Jones Day in Singapore and Pinsent Masons in Birmingham. He was admitted as a Jersey advocate in 2013.
*SOURCE: The Offshore Top 30 2016, The Lawyer magazine.
