Leading offshore law firm, Mourant Ozannes, has announced a number of key changes to its global BVI law practice, which sees the firm strengthen its BVI team in all major time zones.

The growth of the firm’s BVI practice in Europe and the MENA region sees Mike Williams returning to Jersey to further develop the BVI practice in the European time zone, building on the firm’s already strong BVI law capabilities in the region. Mike’s extensive experience, which includes leading the global team that advised Canada Pension Plan Investment Board on the BVI, Guernsey and Jersey law aspects of its £1.1 billion acquisition of the UK student accommodation portfolio of the Brandeaux Student Accommodation Fund, will be an added asset to the team and its ability to deliver an exceptional service to clients in a European time zone.

Rachael McDonald has been appointed as the new managing partner of the BVI office. Rachael, who led the Mourant Ozannes team acting for Rosneft on its US$55 billion acquisition of TNK-BP, the largest ever M&A deal to date in the BVI, will continue to build upon the success of the office, which has enjoyed impressive year on year growth.

The growth of the global BVI practice is further strengthened by partner, Shaun Folpp, relocating to the firm’s Hong Kong office to establish a contentious restructuring and litigation offering to Asia based clients. Shaun, who established the BVI office’s successful litigation and insolvency practice, will build on the substantial amount of BVI and Cayman Islands litigation, restructuring and insolvency work already undertaken by the firm in the region. The Hong Kong office’s contentious restructuring and litigation practice will cover both BVI and Cayman Islands law and will also provide support to the existing corporate, finance, investment funds and private client practices.

The BVI office also continues to grow with the promotion to partnership of litigation and insolvency specialists Eleanor Morgan and Nicholas Fox, subject to local work permit approval. Eleanor’s and Nicholas’ promotions and these senior global moves demonstrate the firm’s continued commitment to its people and its investments in the Caribbean and Hong Kong.

Jonathan Rigby, global managing partner, said, “We are extremely grateful to Mike and Shaun for the huge contribution they have made to the establishment and development of the BVI office over recent years. We have built a fantastic team of talented partners, lawyers and staff in the BVI and we are involved in some of the very best work in market. We are extremely fortunate to have such a great team providing BVI legal advice across American, Asian and European time zones.”