From Bernews

International offshore law firm Harneys has been named Offshore Law Firm of the Year by The Lawyer, announced on June 29th. The awards recognise firms for outstanding legal excellence, market-leading strategy and commercial strength.

The award follows a year of strong growth for Harneys. The firm has hired lawyers across all of its global practices, built out its 14 offices worldwide, launched a new practice in Bermuda – where it has firmly established successful Bermuda legal and Fiduciary offerings – and also opened offices in Shanghai and Tokyo.

Harneys lawyers have acted on groundbreaking deals and cases around the world, including the launch of the first Cyprus hedge fund, which is also the first investing into Iran following UN sanctions lifting at the beginning of 2016. The firm also advised on the US$1.35 billion merger of UTi and DSV earlier this year, which created the fourth largest freight forwarder in the world.

As the only offshore firm advising on Bermuda, BVI, Cayman, Mauritius, Anguilla and Cyprus law, Harneys advises clients in all global regions, depending on their needs. The firm continues to gain ground in its jurisdictions, and in Cayman has the fourth largest portfolio of Cayman funds in the market and has doubled the number of its lawyers on the ground in Cayman in the past 18 months.

In BVI, Harneys remains more than twice the size of any competitor, and in Bermuda the firm has rapidly gained ground in just over 6 months since opening its legal and fiduciary practice on island.

Internationally, Harneys has grown apace in Asia, advising on high profile deals including the US$2.4bn debt restructuring of China’s Kaisa property development group. The firm’s London office is one of the largest offshore practices in the city, and Harneys is the only offshore law firm in Latin America, where it continues to drive business between major offshore jurisdictions and the South American region.

Peter Tarn, Harneys Managing Partner, commented: “Harneys is one of the most dynamic, fast-growing offshore teams worldwide. Our continued growth has been fuelled by our strong commercial advice, friendly and unpretentious approach to doing business and our firm-wide commitment to achieving excellence in client service on time all of the time.

“At a time when others have scaled back or remained static, Harneys is winning clients, innovating offshore law, expanding into new markets and advising on complex, multi-jurisdictional, multi-billion dollar matters. We are delighted to receive this recognition.”

The Lawyer Awards celebrate excellence across private practice, the public sector, commerce and industry, and the Bar. Winners are selected annually by a panel of judges based on jurisdictional leadership, outstanding depth and breadth of expertise, commercial strength, growth in market share, legal innovation, and market leading strategy.

Harneys has won a number of awards this year, including from HFM Week for Funds work, and was recently shortlisted for a STEP Private Client Award.

For more on this story go to: http://bernews.com/2016/06/harneys-named-offshore-law-firm-year/

IMAGE: www.harneys.com