Appleby’s Cayman office has added further strength to its global funds and finance teams with the appointment of funds and finance heavy hitter, Ian Gobin, to its Cayman practice.

Ian is returning to the Cayman Islands, having spent eleven years with Walkers as an Associate and then a Partner between 2001 and 2012.  He joins Appleby’s Cayman office as a Partner this week.

Cayman Office Managing Partner, Bryan Hunter said:  “Ian’s appointment is excellent news for our corporate practice, particularly on the funds side of the team, and is a further demonstration of our commitment to the Cayman market.”

“He will also provide further strength to our fast-growth CLOs team.  Ian was heavily involved in CLO 1.0, acting for most of the New York based Arrangers, as well as Collateral Managers across the United States.”

Market expertise

Ian has arrived in Cayman following a bumper year for CLOs with Appleby clearly demonstrating its lead role in the market, closing around 30% of all 2012 deals.

Appleby’s Global Head of Structured Finance, Julian Black, leads the firm’s dedicated CLOs team.  He said: “We have just come out of a year in which we closed 34 CLOs representing some 30% of the market by value, acting for all of the major Arrangers.”

“We are excited by Ian’s arrival, and the extra capacity that this represents for the team.  We are planning to continue to grow the team, through hiring additional talent and internal promotions that we will announce in the near future.”

Ian Gobin said: “It is a really significant time to be joining the corporate practice here in Cayman.”

“My combined practice experience advising on a range of funds and structured finance deals complements the current team.  We are already working on a number of market-significant deals and structures. 2013 certainly looks to be getting off to a strong start!”

Ian qualified as a Solicitor in England and Wales in 1997 and trained with Magic Circle firm, Clifford Chance, qualifying into the Global Capital Markets team.   In that time he had various secondments to the Capital Markets team at Morgan Stanley.  He first moved to the Cayman Islands in  August 2001, joining Walkers where he was made Partner in January 2008.  He worked in the International Finance and Corporate Group and specialised in a wide range of asset finance, structured finance and secured lending transactions as well as in hedge funds and private equity funds.

Appleby is the world’s largest provider of offshore legal, fiduciary and administration services. With an unparalleled presence in the key offshore jurisdictions of Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Mauritius, and Seychelles, the group offers advice on offshore law and also has offices in four international financial centres: London, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Zurich.

The Appleby Group has been ranked as the world’s largest provider of offshore legal services by partner numbers in The Lawyer’s 2012 Offshore Survey. In 2010 Appleby was named “Offshore Law Firm of the Year” in both the Legal Week and The Lawyer Awards; no other firm has ever received both accolades in the same year. With over 800 lawyers and professional specialists across the Group, Appleby delivers sophisticated, specialised services, primarily in the areas of Corporate and Commercial, Litigation and Insolvency, Private Client and Trusts and Property, and a broad range of fiduciary services.  The Group advises public and private companies, financial institutions, and high net worth individuals, working with them and their advisers to achieve practical solutions, whether in a single location or across multiple jurisdictions.