Back-to-back wins for Carey Olsen at The Lawyer Awards 2018

The back-to-back success marks the third time that the firm has been awarded this prestigious accolade by The Lawyer in the past five years.

The Lawyer Awards 2018, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London last night, brought together more than 1,100 private practice lawyers and senior corporate counsel to celebrate excellence across the legal industry.

In the offshore category, Carey Olsen faced competition from six other shortlisted firms and won the award for legal excellence, depth and breadth of expertise, commercial strength, market share, innovation and market-leading strategy.

In the past 12 months the firm has increased its global footprint with the opening of Carey Olsen Bermuda – the firm's ninth international office and fifth legal jurisdiction; continued its rapid expansion in the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands; built on the success of its office openings in Singapore (2015) and Hong Kong (2016) and secured its position as the leading law firm in the Channel Islands with a top-tier ranking across all 17 of its practice areas in Legal 500 UK – the only offshore law firm to have tier one status across the board.

Carey Olsen has been involved in a number of notable deals and cases over the past year, including:

• advising Global Advisors (Holdings) Limited on the launch of the world’s first regulated, crypto-denominated fund, CoinShares Fund I in June 2017. The cutting-edge fund receives investments exclusively in Ether but also trades cryptocurrencies and other tokens, including selected Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs);
• acting for G Medical Innovations Limited, a Cayman Islands exempted company, in connection with its initial public offering (IPO) of shares on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The IPO was notable because it was the first time that a Cayman Islands company had listed its shares on the ASX;
• advising entities managed by the Carlyle Group and affiliates of Värde Partners on the A$1.2 billion restructure and recapitalisation of the Bis Industries group, an Australian resources logistics and materials handling provider. The transaction was the first time a creditors' scheme of arrangement had been used in the Australian market as an interim stabilising step in a broader restructuring process;
• acting for British Airways and Marsh & McLennan Companies in the latest deals for Guernsey’s longevity risk market – solidifying the firm's position as the go-to law firm for these instructions, having advised BT on its ground-breaking £16 billion longevity risk transfer in 2014; and
• continuing to advise on the landmark Tchenguiz litigation – one of the largest contentious trust insolvency disputes of recent years.

Carey Olsen group managing partner Alex Ohlsson said: "It is a truly fantastic achievement to have won this award back-to-back. We have had another strong year in terms of growth and performance across the board and also increased our global reach with the opening of Carey Olsen Bermuda at the end of 2017.

"What pleases me most is that the award is a ringing endorsement of the calibre of the legal teams and staff at Carey Olsen and recognition of their hard work and commitment to the firm and our clients. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank our clients and intermediaries for their support in making this such a successful year for Carey Olsen."

Carey Olsen partner Ben Morgan, head of the firm's corporate and finance group in Guernsey, collected the award on behalf of the firm.