Offshore law firm Carey Olsen has announced six new partners bringing the total number of partners across its seven offices to 49.
The new partners are Annette Alexander from the Guernsey corporate practice, Kate Andrews and James Willmott from the Jersey corporate practice, Keith Dixon and Alexa Saunders from the Jersey trusts and private wealth practice and Jeremy Garrood from the Jersey litigation practice.
Carey Olsen chairman, John Kelleher (pictured), says: “Our new partners have earned their place through their exceptional technical knowledge and dedication to client service. They join the partner group at a very exciting time for Carey Olsen and we look forward to their contribution in the years to come.
"We are expanding rapidly across our offices and our partners are consistently instructed on the most high profile cross-border matters reflecting Carey Olsen's position at the forefront of the offshore legal world."
This latest announcement follows partner Sam Dawson's arrival in Carey Olsen's rapidly-growing Cayman Islands dispute resolution and insolvency practice.
Alexander advises clients on a broad range of corporate matters, including investment funds, finance and general corporate, with a particular emphasis on listed funds and private equity. She has a wide range of experience across the corporate and commercial sector and acts for many large fund promoters and financial institutions both locally and internationally. She advises on all aspects of investment fund formation, regulation and operation as well as group reorganisations and general corporate structuring. Prior to joining Carey Olsen's Guernsey office in 2001, Alexander worked for Clayton Utz in Australia. She was called as an advocate of the Royal Court of Guernsey in 2008.
Andrews joined Carey Olsen in 2013 and became a Jersey advocate in February 2016. Kate has over 20 years' experience in acquisition finance. She previously worked in London, first with Clifford Chance and then with White & Case before joining Norton Rose. She also completed secondments at two investment banks. Andrews works on a broad range of finance transactions, including the issuance of high yield bonds, complex acquisition finance structures, fund finance and other banking work. She works closely with lawyers and clients in both London and New York.
Willmott's practice covers a wide range of corporate activities with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and private equity transactions. He also has significant experience advising on joint ventures, reorganisations, start-ups and technical and regulatory matters (in particular company law and competition, insurance, banking and other financial services regulation). Willmott began his career at Allen & Overy, where he worked in London, Singapore and Bratislava. Before joining Carey Olsen in 2010 he also worked at Jones Day in Singapore and Pinsent Masons in Birmingham. He was admitted as a Jersey advocate in 2013.
Dixon joined Carey Olsen in 2008 from another offshore law firm. After qualifying as an advocate in Jersey in 1997, he worked predominately as a litigator on significant civil and criminal cases before taking up a position as a private client lawyer in 2001. Dixon now has a specialised commercial and private trust, fiduciary and notarial practice and advises global and institutional trustees, family offices and high-net-worth private clients on commercial and private trusts, foundations, charitable and not-for-profit organisations, succession, pension and estate planning issues as well as on associated regulatory and compliance matters.
Saunders was a senior associate in the trusts group of another Jersey law firm and qualified as a Jersey advocate in 2009 before joining Carey Olsen in 2011. She has a broad trust practice advising on the establishment of new trust structures, drafting trust and ancillary instruments and advising trustees in connection with the on-going administration of trusts. She advises in connection with private family trusts, employee benefit trusts and pension trusts. Saunders is regularly involved in non- and semi-contentious trust proceedings, including applications by trustees for directions from the Royal Court or for the rectification of trust instruments and ancillary documents.
Garrood is an experienced offshore practitioner and Jersey advocate who has been with the firm since 2012. He has worked at the Bar in London, Bermuda, the Caribbean and the Channel Islands, handling cases across the core offshore disciplines of trust, insolvency and company litigation. Garrood has strong insolvency and restructuring experience, dealing with cross-border insolvencies, asset recovery/tracing and receiverships. He continues to be instructed in complex company law cases concerning minority shareholder actions, corporate governance disputes and schemes of arrangement. As a trusts lawyer his practice ranges from uncontroversial restructuring to truly contentious breach of trust claims across private wealth and commercial trust contexts.
