Following the opening of a Hong Kong office in January this year, leading offshore law firm, Mourant Ozannes, has announced that it has opened an office in the British Virgin Islands.

Mourant Ozannes advises on the laws of four of the world’s most important offshore financial centres: the BVI, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey, from these locations and from offices in both Hong Kong and London.

Mourant Ozannes’ BVI office will initially focus on corporate, international finance, investment funds, investment business regulation and insolvency and litigation services.

Jersey based partner, Michael Williams, who has extensive corporate and banking experience and is a BVI qualified solicitor, is relocating to the BVI to oversee the establishment of the office. He is joined by two new Mourant Ozannes’ partners, Rachael McDonald and Shaun Folpp.

Rachael McDonald, who specialises in corporate and finance work, joins Mourant Ozannes from Ogier in the BVI. Rachael has practised in the BVI for the last six years and is a BVI notary public. She has worked previously for Clifford Chance in London and Chapman Tripp in New Zealand.  Rachael leads the global BVI corporate and banking and finance teams. Legal directory, Chambers and Partners notes that Rachael has “a strong reputation” in the BVI, with clients commenting that “she is excellent to deal with.”

Shaun Folpp joins Mourant Ozannes from Ogier in the Cayman Islands. Shaun worked previously as the head of commercial and chancery appeals at the Court of Appeal in London. Shaun leads Mourant Ozannes’ BVI litigation and insolvency practice, and has extensive experience in both contentious and non-contentious insolvency matters, as well as general commercial disputes. Client feedback published in Chambers and Partners notes that Shaun “excels in terms of the quality of his advice.”

The three Mourant Ozannes partners based in the BVI work closely with the BVI qualified lawyers across the firm and Mourant Ozannes is now able to provide BVI legal advice directly from the BVI and from its offices in Asian, American and European time zones.

Mourant Ozannes Cayman Managing Partner, Neal Lomax, said “BVI is one of the world’s leading offshore financial centres. We are seeing increasing demand from clients and intermediaries for BVI legal services across our practice areas. In response to this demand, we are committed to establishing a top tier practice in the jurisdiction.”

Opening the BVI office is in line with Mourant Ozannes’ vision to be consistently recognised as the leading law firm offshore.

Mourant Ozannes’ vision is to be consistently recognised as the leading law firm offshore.

Mourant Ozannes:

• advises on the laws of the BVI, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey;
• has over 50 partners and 440 staff in five offices, spanning Asian, American and European time zones;
• was named ‘Offshore Law Firm of the Year, 2011’ by The Lawyer and Chambers Europe;
• has more top tier directory rankings across its locations than any other offshore law firm (Chambers & Partners, IFLR1000, Legal 500 and PLC Which Lawyer, 2012);
• advises more FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies than any other offshore law firm (Hemscott, 2012);
• advises 19 of the world’s top 20 banks (Bankers Almanac, 2012).