Cayman Local Legal Services

We regularly assist clients in the Cayman Islands who are buying or selling a business, entering into a joint venture, or reorganising their existing structure.

We also provide advice on the day to day corporate and commercial issues that arise for businesses operating in the Islands, from financing and corporate governance issues to terms of business and commercial contracts.

We have considerable practical experience in all aspects of vessel acquisition, disposal, registration, and financing and are able to assist with a range of vessels. We are also involved in the registration of aircraft for private use (particularly fast jets) in the Cayman Islands and the associated structuring and financing.

We advise and represent clients in a wide range of contentious matters in the Cayman Islands. These can range from company commercial disputes through to property, contentious wills and trusts and financial claims, including those involving insolvency proceedings. Our advocates appear before the Grand Court regularly and we are also experienced in alternative forms of resolution such as mediation, arbitration and expert determination. Our Dispute Resolution team is equally renowned for its work offering guidance and support to clients in relation to contentious regulatory matters.

Find out more about our Dispute Resolution services

We provide a full range of contentious and non-contentious employment law advice which includes guidance for HR teams on employment law, including legal developments within the Cayman Islands. This includes advice on work and housing regulations and immigration issues, as well as on claims (or potential claims) around employee health and safety and fatal accidents.

Advising on all aspects of the establishment and licensing of a new trust company, director services company and investment manager in the Cayman Islands, including dealing with all corporate and regulatory issues (including Local Companies (Control) Law). Following establishment, assisting the companies in producing their suite of governance documentation and precedents.

Acting on behalf of long-term resident families, we assist with the drafting of Cayman Islands wills to deal with Cayman Islands situated assets or, where appropriate the worldwide assets of our clients. We work very closely with onshore counsel in determining where our clients are legally “domiciled” as this has a bearing on any estate planning, including an assessment of the tax implications of death.

Our wills typically form part of a larger international estate plan, taking into account all of the jurisdictions in which our clients have assets.

Working with our local clients, we help them to use trusts to own their businesses, homes, and other assets and to take advantage of some of these benefits. Trusts are often used in conjunction with wills, together forming the basis of the client’s estate plan.

Find out more about our Estates Planning, Wills and Probate services

For some high-net-worth individuals, permanent residency in the Cayman Islands is attractive but is seen as a complicated, uncertain process. Our local business team specialists were involved with the drafting of the current legislation and have successfully advised a number of high-net-worth clients on their applications for permanent residency in the Cayman Islands.

Able to offer a full service of bespoke local legal requirements, we are ideally placed and experienced to assist with advising on the legal requirements and practical solutions to help smooth an individual’s relocation to Cayman.

Our team of lawyers have been involved in the development, acquisition, and financing of infrastructure assets for more than twenty years. We can advise from the initial joint venture agreement through to the construction and financing of a project and have a detailed understanding of the contractual arrangements underpinning revenue generation.

Ogier’s IP team acts across the full spectrum of Intellectual Property rights, including brands and trade marks, copy right, industrial designs and patents, specialising in multi-jurisdictional IP clearance, prosecution, exploitation and enforcement. Our IP experts are pragmatic and commercial in their approach to providing IP solutions for all types and sizes of business at all stages of the IP life cycle.

Find out more about our Intellectual Property services here.

Members of our property finance team have provided advice and solutions on a broad range of transactions to major domestic and international banks and financial institutions, investment funds and developers.

Our property finance team provides specialised advice to both lenders and borrowers across a number of areas including

a)    lending for real estate acquisitions and development projects

b)    commercial and residential portfolio acquisitions and disposals

c)    loan book sales

d)    syndicated and bilateral transactional work

e)    warehousing facilities and securitisations

f)    tax efficient security structures

g)    non-transactional work such as standard form loan documentation; and

h)    realisation of real estate security in enforcement situations for lenders, receivers and administrators

Our full-service Cayman Island property law team is well known for executing some of the largest and most complex commercial property transactions with accuracy and speed. We provide a responsive, constructive and commercially aware client service for large and small businesses.

Our team has acted for local landlords, tenants, developers and financiers as well as institutional investors of international repute. We also handle a wide range of local residential transactions, ranging from the purchase and sale of the most valuable and prestigious properties in the Cayman Islands to smaller condos and first homes. Our residential property team is highly recommended by local agents, banks and the people we have helped to buy, sell and finance their property.

Visit our dedicated property website at www.ogierproperty.ky.

We help clients meet regulatory requirements when setting up and undertaking businesses in the Cayman Islands. Our highly regarded local expertise, together with our long established and trusted reputation, enables us to give clients pragmatic and commercial regulatory advice.

We have helped a number of our clients to establish new business in the Special Economic Zone. We were the first firm to assist with a transfer in to the Cayman Islands of a company from the BVI which was being registered, immediately, as a Special Economic Zone Company. In other cases, we have helped the same client to set up multiple Special Economic Zone Companies.

We have also worked with several clients as they established Special Economic Zone Companies as part of a wider proposal to relocate to the Cayman Islands from other parts of the world.

We advise individuals, intermediaries and corporate trustees on Cayman Islands trust law and the right structures for individuals and families.

Estate planning includes wills and will trusts for local residents. Whether the wealth structure is established for succession, asset protection, tax efficiency, family governance or confidentiality, our team of lawyers deliver a discreet and professional service that robustly meets your objectives.