Leading offshore law firm Appleby has been described as “second to none” in the 2024 edition of The Legal 500 Caribbean, with the Group achieving nine Tier 1 rankings across the region.
In addition, 54 of the Group’s Bermuda, British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Cayman Islands lawyers have been ranked or individually recognised, including 15 as ‘leading individuals’.
In Bermuda, Appleby is the highest-ranking law firm and the only one to achieve Tier 1 rankings across all six available practice area categories – Banking, Finance & Capital Markets; Corporate & Commercial; Dispute Resolution; Insurance/Reinsurance; Regulatory & Compliance; and Trusts/Private Client.
Similarly, the Cayman Islands office has maintained Tier 1 rankings for Banking, Finance and Capital Markets; Real Estate; and Trusts/Private Client.
Together with the Group’s rankings for the BVI, which include Tier 2 rankings for both Corporate & Commercial; and Dispute Resolution, Appleby is ranked for 18 practice areas across the Caribbean region.
Further commentary and feedback in this year’s guide includes Bermuda’s Corporate practice being praised for its insurance and reinsurance expertise: “Appleby is the foremost legal firm in Bermuda, bar none. If you have a large or high-profile deal there is no better place to go, and no safer place to go”. The Bermuda Dispute Resolution team was equally commended and described as “a delight to work with. They are professional, diligent and well-respected by the judges in Bermuda. Always exceptionally hard-working and consider the details”.
In the Cayman Islands, the top-ranked Banking, Finance and Capital Markets team is considered the “go-to firm on a large volume of CLOs and other Cayman-specific work”. Similarly, the highly rated Dispute Resolution practice “offers an outstanding litigation service” alongside “a strong team culture, with all members being highly committed and detail-orientated” and “significant depth in terms of subject matter expertise”.
For the BVI, the office’s Dispute Resolution practice is considered “one of the strongest dispute resolution teams in the BVI… I can limitlessly describe how good they are”, while the Corporate team is noted for its work “on cross-border M&A transactions” and for being “proactive and solutions-focused”.
A leading directory for the legal directory, The Legal 500 ranks law firms and their lawyers following a thorough and independent research process which includes feedback from 300,000 clients, private practice lawyers and in-house peers as well as the assessment of a law firm’s own deals and confidential matters.
The Group’s individual rankings are as follows:
LEADING INDIVIDUALS
BERMUDA
Brad Adderley (Office Managing Partner) – Insurance/Reinsurance; Tim Faries (Partner) – Corporate and Commercial & Insurance/Reinsurance; Clive Langley (Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets; Sally Penrose (Partner) – Regulatory and Compliance; Tammy Richardson-Augustus (Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets; Vanessa Schrum (Partner) – Trusts/Private Client; John Wasty (Partner) – Dispute Resolution
BVI
Jeffrey Kirk (Office Managing Partner) – Corporate and Commercial; Andrew Willins (Partner) – Dispute Resolution
cAYman islands
Norman Klein (Office Managing Partner) – Real Estate; Caroline Barton (Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets; Tony Heaver-Wren (Partner) – Dispute Resolution; Simon Raftopoulos (Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets; Carlos de Serpa Pimentel (Partner) – Trusts/Private Client; Benjamin Woolf (Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets
NEXT GENERATION PARTNERS
BERMUDA
Matthew Carr (Partner) – Insurance/Reinsurance; Matthew Ebbs-Brewer (Partner) – Corporate and Commercial; Hannah Tildesley (Partner) – Dispute Resolution; Jerome Wilson (Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets
BVI
Shana Simmonds (Partner) – Corporate and Commercial
cAYman islands
Peter Colegate (Partner) – Regulatory and Compliance; Adam Johnson (Partner) – Real Estate; Jacob MacAdam (Partner) – Corporate and Commercial; Georgina Pullinger (Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets; Sebastian Said (Partner) – Dispute Resolution
RISING STARS
BERMUDA
Josephine Noddings (Counsel) – Corporate and Commercial; Caljonah Smith (Counsel) – Trusts/Private Client
cAYman islands
Esmond Brown (Counsel) – Trusts/Private Client; Tim Swallow (Senior Associate) – Real Estate
‘Further recommendations/other key lawyers’
BERMUDA
Brad Adderley (Office Managing Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets & Corporate and Commercial; Alan Bossin (Partner) – Insurance/Reinsurance; David Clark (Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets & Corporate and Commercial; Gary Harris (Partner) – Insurance/Reinsurance; Clive Langley (Partner) – Corporate and Commercial; Hannah Tildesley (Partner) – Trusts/Private Client; John Wasty (Partner) – Regulatory and Compliance; Jerome Wilson (Partner) – Corporate and Commercial; Khiyara Krige (Counsel) – Dispute Resolution; Andrew Kuzma (Counsel) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets; Josephine Noddings (Counsel) – Insurance/Reinsurance; Sam Riihiluoma (Counsel) – Dispute Resolution & Trusts/Private Client; Lalita Vaswani (Counsel) – Dispute Resolution; James Batten (Senior Associate) – Dispute Resolution; Carl Meyer (Associate) – Corporate and Commercial
BVI
Jeffrey Kirk (Office Managing Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets & Regulatory and Compliance; Olwyn Barry (Group Partner) – Dispute Resolution; David Clark (Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets & Corporate and Commercial; Andrew Jowett (Group Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets & Corporate and Commercial; Daniel Mitchell (Partner) – Dispute Resolution; Shana Simmonds (Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets & Regulatory and Compliance; Stuart Fee (Counsel) – Corporate and Commercial & Regulatory and Compliance; Tamara Cameron (Senior Associate) – Dispute Resolution; Brittany Cummings (Senior Associate) – Corporate and Commercial & Regulatory and Compliance; Laure-Astrid Wigglesworth (Senior Associate) – Dispute Resolution
cAYman islands
Sailaja Alla (Partner) – Investment Funds; Caroline Barton (Partner) – Corporate and Commercial; Dean Bennett (Partner) – Corporate and Commercial & Insurance/Reinsurance; Sheila Crosby (Partner) – Investment Funds; Andrew Jackson (Partner) – Dispute Resolution; David Lee (Partner) – Dispute Resolution; Jacob MacAdam (Partner) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets & Insurance/Reinsurance & Regulatory and Compliance; Simon Raftopoulos (Partner) – Corporate and Commercial & Insurance/Reinsurance & Regulatory and Compliance; Sebastian Said (Partner) – Trusts/Private Clients; Benjamin Woolf (Partner) – Corporate and Commercial; David Lewis-Hall (Counsel) – Dispute Resolution; Menelik Miller (Counsel) – Insurance and Reinsurance & Regulatory and Compliance; Tamanna Keir (Senior Associate) – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets; Miriam Smyth (Senior Associate) – Insurance and Reinsurance & Regulatory and Compliance
