Mourant — Guernsey

Abel Lyall

Abel's practice covers all areas of commercial and financial disputes, with a focus on financial institutions, investment funds and trusts. He specialises in insolvency matters, and has extensive experience acting for creditors, directors, shareholders and insolvency practitioners on all aspects of contentious insolvency and asset recovery. Abel also advises on regulatory issues, and has acted for financial institutions in a number of significant regulatory investigations and proceedings. · Litigation

Alana Gillies Ridout

Alana is Partner in the Mourant Guernsey Corporate practice. She provides advice on all aspects of Guernsey corporate law. Alana moved to Guernsey to join Mourant Ozannes in May 2014 and specialises in Private M&A, Banking and Finance and Commercial Contracts. She acts for a diverse client base including private limited companies, funds, institutional lenders and individuals (local and international). Some of her key clients include SGG Group (now IQ EQ), Brookfield, WPP Group, EFG Private Bank, HSBC and the ARM Insurance Group. · Corporate / M&A

Alison Wood

Alison is a Senior Associate in the Guernsey Property department, and has nearly 25 years' experience within Mourant Ozannes. Alison has extensive experience in all types of Guernsey commercial property transactions including acquisitions and disposals, landlord and tenant matters, commercial lending and borrowing. She also has expertise in acting for developers of commercial properties, including construction and development documentation and the production of schedule documents. · Real Estate

Chantal Barrett

As Counsel in the firm's Guernsey Litigation team, Chantal is a highly experienced advocate with a broad-based commercial litigation practice. Chantal has a broad-based commercial disputes practice with a particular expertise in regulatory, trust and insurance law including disciplinary and regulatory proceedings for legal and financial professionals, contentious trust, D&O policy coverage disputes and insurance litigation. · Litigation

Christopher Edwards

Christopher joined the firm in January 2002 from Australia and was called to the Guernsey Bar in 2005. He specialises in complex commercial and trust litigation and provides advice to a range of financial institutions and fiduciaries, with particular expertise in multi-jurisdictional disputes. In addition Christopher has a particular interest in regulatory and compliance matters, having obtained Diplomas in Compliance and Anti-Money Laundering, and regularly advises on a number of routine and non-routine matters including liaising with the GFSC, police and the FIU. Christopher also has expertise in relation to cross border assistance in tax and money laundering issues. · Litigation

Darren Bacon

Darren is a Partner at Mourant Ozannes (Guernsey) LLP in the Guernsey Corporate practice specialising in investment funds in a range of sectors, including infrastructure, private equity, real estate and debt, acting for both listed and private structures. He also regularly advises on a range of corporate transactions. · Corporate / M&A

Frances Watson

Frances is a Partner at Mourant Ozannes (Guernsey) LLP in the Guernsey Corporate practice specialising in investment funds in a range of sectors, including infrastructure, private equity, real estate and debt, acting for both listed and private structures. She also regularly advises on a range of corporate transactions. · Corporate / M&A

Gilly Kennedy-Smith

Gilly heads up Mourant's award winning Trusts and Private Client team in Guernsey and has nearly two decades of experience in both London and offshore. Gilly advises international high net worth families, trust companies and family offices on the establishment, restructuring and management of family asset holding vehicles as well as estate and succession planning, with a focus on achieving private wealth objectives by thoughtful planning and governance. While her clients are global she has particular experience working with Middle Eastern, Swiss and UK connected clients. She frequently works with advisors in other jurisdictions to build coherent succession solutions for clients, that work for successive generations of the family. Gilly is individually ranked in the Chambers and Partners High Net Worth Guide in Offshore: Trusts, listed as a Global Elite - Lawyer in the Private Client Global Elite Directory and ranked as a Leading Individual in Legal 500 UK. She is a regular speaker in Guernsey and beyond, as well as having published a number of articles for international publication. In 2024, Gilly was appointed International Correspondent for Private Client Business, the leading journal for those involved with private client work. · Trusts

Gordon Dawes

Gordon is a Partner of Mourant Ozannes (Guernsey) LLP in the firm's Guernsey Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice. Gordon's practice focus points are cross-border commercial disputes, regulatory law and white-collar crime, trust disputes and related issues (for example director and company issues arising in a trust context) and areas of crossover between the regulatory and fiduciary worlds. He has a substantial company law and commercial practice more generally with considerable experience also of insurance and public law. I have a particular interest in litigation funding. Gordon has taken cases to all levels of the Guernsey court system including cases to the Privy Council and to the Supreme Court/House of Lords and to the European Court of Human Rights. He has written extensively about Guernsey law including writing what is still Guernsey's leading textbook, Laws of Guernsey, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2003. Gordon has been a member of the editorial board of the Channel Islands' leading law review, the Jersey and Guernsey Law Review, since 2003. He is also a director of Guernsey's law institute. · Litigation

Hana Plsek

Hana is Counsel in the Mourant Guernsey Employment practice. Her areas of practice are contentious and non-contentious employment law advising both global and local companies. Hana advises individuals and businesses relocating or starting up in Guernsey on visas, in particular Investor and Entrepreneur visas, immigration matters generally and employment permits. She also advises on Guernsey specific out of policy residence certificates. Hana is part of a team of specialists advising businesses on data protection matters including working with clients to ensure that their policies, procedures and third-party contracts can demonstrate compliance with data protection legislation, drafting information notices to meet the required standards of transparency and advising on the legality of international transfers of personal data. She is a regular speaker on employment related matters, contributes to articles and provides training to clients with regards to employment law. In 2021, Hana won 'Woman of the Year - Rising Star' Silver Award at the Citywealth Powerwomen Awards 2021. · Employment

Helen Wyatt

Helen is a Partner in the Corporate practice of Mourant Ozannes (Guernsey) LLP and has broad commercial and corporate law experience. She's advised clients on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings and IPOs, as well as the establishment and restructuring of investment schemes, financing and corporate transactions. Helen has a particular interest in financial services regulatory matters. Helen is a member of the Guernsey Commercial Bar Association. · Corporate / M&A

James Cousins

James is a Partner of Mourant LP in the Mourant Guernsey Corporate practice, specialising in investment funds. His practice spans all aspects of asset management. With solid private practice grounding and broad in-house experience, James is able to bring a commercial, pragmatic, client-friendly approach to his advice. He has a particular interest in hedge funds and other alternative investments but advises broadly across all fund types and asset classes. His practice encompasses the full fund lifecycle - from formation to maintenance to distributions and dissolutions, in addition to general corporate, finance, and regulatory advisory work. · Investment Funds

Jeremy Wessels

Jeremy is a Partner at Mourant Ozannes (Guernsey) LLP. He specialises in commercial litigation, particularly cases involving insolvency, contentious trust disputes and financial services businesses, along with asset tracing and freezing orders. Jeremy also advises on regulatory and money-laundering issues. Jeremy has been involved in significant cases before the Royal Court of Guernsey, including a number of high-value insolvencies. He deals with insolvency issues relating to various structures, such as protected cell companies, incorporated cell companies and limited partnerships. Jeremy also speaks regularly on insolvency issues and contributes to publications in the field. · Litigation

John Greenfield

John is a Consultant in the Guernsey Litigation team. His specialisms span the full range of major litigation and advocacy work, including asset tracing, multi-jurisdictional disputes, and commercial and trust litigation. John has been involved in many of the most significant litigation cases before the Royal Court of Guernsey and the Guernsey Court of Appeal, and is one of the few Guernsey advocates to have appeared as counsel before the Privy Council. He is a founding member of FraudNet, a body of the world’s leading fraud lawyers established by the International Chamber of Commerce. · Litigation

John Rochester

John is a Partner of Mourant LP and Practice Leader of the Mourant Guernsey Corporate team, advising on matters of Guernsey and BVI Law. He advises corporate and financial institutions on a range of banking and finance matters (including real estate finance and asset finance) and corporate transactions (including schemes of arrangement, reorganisations and public and private M&A). · Banking & Finance

Laura Bougourd

As a Senior Associate in the Mourant Guernsey property practice, Laura advises on all aspects of non-contentious commercial property work. She regularly deals with a wide variety of landlord and tenant matters and has extensive experience advising on property development, sales and acquisitions and lending and borrowing, including assisting in the property aspects of corporate transactions. In 2024, Laura became certified as Carbon Literate through completing accredited training with The Carbon Literacy Project. · Real Estate

Rachel Guthrie

Rachel is a Partner, Head of the Mourant Guernsey Employment practice, and a qualified Notary Public. Rachel's areas of practice are employment law, data protection and litigation. She specialises in all areas of contentious and non-contentious employment and data protection law, advising global and local companies. In 2021, she won 'Woman of the Year - Future Leaders - Senior Associate' Gold Award at the Citywealth Powerwomen Awards 2021. Rachel has written the Guernsey chapter in the current issue of Data Protection: Laws of the World. · Employment