Ogier team recognised for high profile cases in The Lawyer's Offshore Litigation review

Ogier's successful work on the biggest Cayman court-approved contentious restructuring, the largest civil trial in Guernsey's history and a Jersey trust variation to allow children of same sex relationships to benefit from two substantial trusts has been recognised in The Lawyer's Offshore Litigation survey.

The report compares offshore law firms across jurisdictions, and lists all 10 Ogier dispute resolution partners – who are due to be joined next week by new partner Marc Kish, a contentious restructuring and insolvency specialist, in the Cayman team.

It also quotes Global Head of Dispute Resolution, Simon Davies, saying that he expects to see the disputes market growing in both Hong Kong and Jersey.

Simon said: "We expect the Hong Kong market – both in terms of BVI and Cayman matters – to continue to grow, and we anticipate increasing our market share there.

“The Jersey Royal Court continues to be exceptionally strong, particularly in relation to high-value and complex trusts disputes, as shown by the recent case of the Representation of Y Trust and Z Trust, in which we represented a family that successfully applied for variations to trust documents to allow the children of same sex relationships and those born out of wedlock to benefit from two substantial trusts.”

Ogier's "slick" BVI team led by Brian Lacy was joined at the end of 2016 by senior litigator Nick Burkill, formerly head of London litigation at one of the US law firms, and has seen a significant increase in workload over 2017.

Simon – a Guernsey Advocate - led the team working on one of three matters highlighted by The Lawyer in the report:

·          Simon led the successful defence by the Carlyle Group entity defendants of the claims brought by the liquidators appointed following the collapse of Guernsey-registered Carlyle Capital Corporation in 2008. The £1bn action is thought to be the largest in Guernsey’s history by financial value, number of pleaded claims, the number of witnesses, the duration of the trial and the number of documents filed.

·         The successful restructuring of Nasdaq-listed oil services group The Ocean Rig in one of the biggest ever contentious restructurings on record in Cayman. Partner Rachael Reynolds led the team advising liquidators AlixPartners on an unprecedented form of court-to-court protocol to reduce the group’s $3.7bn debt burden involved four inter-related schemes of arrangements in the Cayman Islands and Chapter 15 proceedings in the US.

·         Global Managing Partner Edward Mackereth led the team on the application on the Y and Z trusts in Jersey's Royal Court, which led to the trusts being varied so that children of same sex relationships and children born to unmarried parents could benefit. The case involved definitions of the meaning of "benefit" and public policy considerations.