About
Collas Crill is an offshore firm with offices in BVI, Cayman, Guernsey, Jersey and London. With 40 partners and directors, and 86 other lawyers and legal professionals, Collas Crill delivers a comprehensive range of legal services to clients locally and around the globe. Clients include some of the world’s leading financial institutions, international businesses, trusts and funds, as well as HNW individuals and families, alongside an established network of independent and trusted partners. The firm is committed to the local communities in which it operates and to the wellbeing of their people, and seeks to build and develop a reflective CSR programme. - Practice areas Banking and finance: Collas Crill’s banking and finance teams in Guernsey, Jersey, BVI and Cayman act on both borrower and lender side for banks, funds, institutional and private investors, government linked organisations and global development corporations. They are on the panel of and work for leading retail banks including RBS, HSBC, Santander as well as private banks such as Investec, Coutts, Rothschild and Arbuthnot Latham and Islamic banks (namely ABC, BLME, ADIB, QIB, Gatehouse and Al Rayan Bank). - The firm has particular expertise in - real estate finance (in financing investment in office buildings, luxury apartments, warehouses, co-living and co-working accommodation, and leisure facilities to name a few) - Islamic finance transactions - acquisition and leveraged finance - structured finance, note issues - fund finance - debt restructuring It is able to advise on BVI and Cayman finance matters from the Channel Islands in a UK time zone. Capital markets: Collas Crill’s global capital markets team acts on a broad range of debt, equity and derivative capital markets transactions on all of the major exchanges in the UK, Europe and the US. We are typically instructed by an array of issuers, banks, brokers, underwriters, sponsors and other advisors in respect of initial applications, secondaries, M&A transactions (including by scheme of arrangement), warrant and option programmes, EBTs and general continuing obligations, and we have significant experience in acting for activist shareholders. Through our in house listing agents, we also provide a comprehensive legal and advisory service to international companies listing securities on The International Stock Exchange and the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange. Commercial and residential property: Collas Crill’s full service property team in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey is recognised by clients for its responsive, friendly and commercially aware approach. The firm’s property specialists have the local knowledge and expertise to not only offer top quality advice on all residential and commercial property transactions, but to give meaningful opinions and anticipate challenges and opportunities at every stage of the process. The firm is consistently recognised as a leader across the Channels Islands and the Cayman Islands. The firm acts for landlords and tenants, private individuals, banks, corporates and investments funds and works with the islands’ largest property developers of both residential and commercial property. Across the jurisdictions, the firm is known for advising on complex real estate transactions, boasting one of the largest and most experienced property teams. In the Channel Islands, the firm also established a UK real estate and real estate finance team advising international clients investing in and financing UK real estate. In the Cayman Islands, the firm has secured highly-coveted panel positions as preferred attorneys for most of the Class A Banks. The team routinely is involved with negotiations with government authorities with respect to acquisitions, commercial activities, licencing and all regulatory matters. Corporate and commercial: With offices in Guernsey, Jersey, BVI and Cayman, Collas Crill’s corporate team advises a broad range of banks, trust companies, private equity, listed and unlisted corporates, HNWs and families, their directors, and shareholders, with particular expertise in the energy, utilities, digital assets, medical, transport, licensed premises and real estate sectors. Work includes - - complex international M&A, especially in relation to regulated parties corporate structuring, joint ventures, PE investment and fund vehicles, SPVs, SPACs and associated listing of vehicles on TISE - IPOs, secondary offerings and structured products a top regulatory practice advising clients on a host of risk and regulation issues including investigations and disciplinary hearings, aspects of corporate governance, directors duties, AML, data protection, competition law and economic substance - restructuring, insolvency and migration of corporate vehicles commercial agreements, distribution, outsourcing, technology and licensing contracts . The team also works closely with its top ranking litigation teams in each jurisdiction in relation to complex insolvencies and shareholder disputes. Dispute resolution: One of the largest and most experienced teams in the Channel Islands, the Cayman Islands and the BVI, we handle - commercial and financial services litigation including complex shareholder disputes and activism, Section 238 fair value proceedings, professional indemnity claims, contractual and investment fund disputes, fraud, asset tracing, enforcement actions and freezing injunctions insolvency and restructuring, advising voluntary, provisional and official liquidators, liquidation committees, directors, creditors and investors, companies and shareholders in relation to liquidations, schemes of arrangement and compromise, restructuring strategies, and reduction of share capital petitions contentious trusts and probate, acting for trustees, beneficiaries, settlors and protectors as well as parties to divorce proceedings impacting on offshore trusts and, regulatory disputes, claims and investigations, including utilities regulation, TIEAs, enforcement action and breaches of sanctions, AML, data protection and money laundering laws and financial crime. Investment funds: Collas Crill’s fund specialists offer advice on all aspects relating to the establishment, authorisation and structuring of funds and related investment vehicles. The firm has particular expertise acting for emerging managers who are building their business and acting for institutional investors, including acting for private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds on joint venture and fund investments, as well as planning their internal corporate structures. International private client and trusts: We work with wealthy individuals, family controlled businesses and entrepreneurs to manage and protect wealth across generations, and to succession plan. We represent trustees, settlors, protectors and beneficiaries and have extensive experience of private wealth structuring including pensions, foundations and trusts, and we have particular experience of shariah compliant structuring. We work closely with our corporate and litigation teams in respect of corporate structures within family trusts, trust issues arising from divorce or family disputes, and contentious and semi-contentious trusts matters including mistake applications, and variations. We also have a specialised team to assist in all aspects of wills, estate planning and administration, succession planning, probate, guardianship and powers of attorney. ### Staffing Figures - 6 Partners - 16 Other legal staff
Office locations
Grand Cayman
Grand Cayman
Collas Crill Floor 2, Willow House Cricket Square Po Box 709 Grand Cayman Ky1-1107 Grand Cayman Cayman Islands
Practice areas
Lawyers in this office
Alistair Wade
Senior Associate. Alistair is a real estate lawyer providing both commercial and residential advice across a wide range of matters including acquisitions and disposals, insolvency, development funding and lettings. He is experienced in acting for developers, administrators, investors, lenders, landlords and tenant. Alistair has more than 10 years' experience in the real estate sector. Originally based in the UK, Alistair worked at DWF and then Shoosmiths acting for a wide range of clients managing transactions between £200k to £20m+ including a large number of Yorkshire-based private rental sector schemes. · Real Estate
Andrew Peedom
Andrew is a Partner in our Cayman team. Andrew has extensive experience in complex commercial litigation, with a focus on contentious and non-contentious trust and estate disputes, many of which have a multi-jurisdictional element. He regularly acts for trustees, settlors, protectors, enforcers and beneficiaries and he also advises on regulatory matters. · Commercial Litigation
Chantelle Day
Partner. Chantelle has extensive experience with various investment fund structures, including hedge funds, private equity funds, technology and venture capital funds, cryptocurrency funds, segregated portfolio companies and unit trusts. She has worked on a variety of corporate matters including joint ventures, SPACs, corporate restructurings, mergers and acquisitions and migrations. She also advises on regulatory matters, including data protection, economic substance, beneficial ownership, FATCA/CRS, VASP and fintech matters, as well as CIMA enforcement matters for corporate service providers. · Investment Funds
Ciara Hansen
Associate. Ciara is an Associate in the Insolvency and Corporate Disputes team in Cayman. Her practice includes commercial litigation across a wide range of financial and commercial disputes relating to investment funds, commercial contracts, economic valuation, shareholder agreements, breaches of director duties and cross-border insolvency. Ciara was awarded the The Recovery and Insolvency Specialists Association (RISA) Rising Star Award in 2021. · Insolvency
Dawn Major
Associate. Dawn is an Associate in the Insolvency and Corporate Disputes team in Cayman, having joined Collas Crill in September 2019. · Insolvency
Gina Berry
Gina joined Collas Crill in 2020 to lead the Cayman real estate team, bringing with her a wealth of experience. Her name in the legal community is synonymous with the highest quality in client care. Gina’s brand of excellence is well known especially in the Cayman Islands, which she has called home for more than 26 years. She maintains an unblemished reputation for accurately getting the job done, listening to and caring for her clients, seamlessly navigating tight timelines, bringing additional value to transactions and exceeding clients’ expectations. · Real Estate
Harry Rasmussen
Counsel. Harry is an offshore litigator with experience in managing high-profile, high-value, complex commercial disputes, including through to trial. He specialises in shareholder disputes, including s.238 'fair value' appraisal proceedings. Harry has more than a decade's experience managing complex cross-border litigation, including high-profile insolvency and restructuring mandates. Routinely acting for the world's pre-eminent investment managers and institutional shareholders, he is a leading and trusted advisor to clients dealing with s.238 merger appraisal disputes and has acted on the most prominent and high-value matters to come before the Cayman courts. Harry's experience includes advising the largest ever group of dissenting shareholders litigating the c.$9billion privatisation of 58.com; and the largest body of dissenting shareholders in the matter of Nord Anglia, successfully securing hundreds of millions of dollars at trial. Before moving to the Cayman Islands, Harry worked in England at some of the world's largest law firms, focussing on risk management, litigation, and investigations for household-name commercial clients, governments, and local authorities. He joined Collas Crill in 2024. Harry is listed by Legal 500 2020 as a 'key lawyer'. He is presently engaged on several multi-billion-dollar s.238 appraisal disputes proceedings through the Cayman court. Harry is conversant with the key principles underpinning expert valuation and has successfully completed the Harvard (online) Certificate in Financial Analysis and Valuation for Lawyers. · Litigation
Matthew Dors
Partner. Matthew is a Partner in the Insolvency and Corporate Disputes team and is based in the Cayman Islands specialising in high-value and high-profile cross-border commercial litigation, insolvency and restructuring. Matthew has particular expertise in complex cross-border insolvencies and restructurings and regularly advises and represents liquidators and stakeholders in relation to contentious and non-contentious matters, including seeking court assistance for foreign insolvency proceedings. He has regularly advised financial institutions in relation to fraud and asset recovery matters (including obtaining urgent relief such as freezing injunctions and disclosure orders). Prior to moving to Cayman in 2013, Matthew practiced for a number of years as a Barrister in England and Wales, with a focus on complex trust, insolvency and property disputes. He has extensive advocacy experience, having regularly appeared in the High Court and the Court of Appeal. Matthew is listed as a recommended lawyer in Legal 500 2024 and in Band 5 in Chambers and Partners. · Litigation
Matthew Harders
Senior Associate. Matthew is a highly skilled commercial litigation attorney with a focus on insolvency, restructuring, and debt recovery. He joined Collas Crill's Insolvency and Corporate Disputes team as a Senior Associate in October 2024 and is based in the Cayman Islands. Matthew has substantial experience in all aspects of insolvency, restructuring, financial services and general commercial litigation practice, including complex contractual disputes, shareholder disputes, trusts and trust management, urgent and interlocutory injunctions, winding up and bankruptcy petitions, restructuring and schemes of arrangement, asset recovery, secured and unsecured debt recovery and security enforcement. Matthew practiced in Australia for more than five years before moving to the Cayman Islands in 2023. Previously a Senior Associate in the Insolvency and Litigation team of Thomson Geer Lawyers, Matthew was the only solicitor within Thomson Geer engaged directly by upper management to recover debts owed to the Firm on a national basis, successfully recovering hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to the Firm, slashing the Firm's Bad Debts liability. · Litigation
Nicholas Batten
Senior Associate. Nick joined Collas Crill in 2024. He is an experienced commercial litigator who has acted for a mix of public companies, large private corporations and high net worth individuals in the Federal Court of Australia and State Supreme Courts. Nick has nine years' post-admission experience working as a Senior Associate at Herbert Smith Freehills' litigation team in Melbourne. Prior to that, he worked at the boutique litigation firm Arnold Bloch Liebler and before that at MinterEllison in Australia. Nick has experience acting for both Australian and US subsidiaries of Bayer in relation to alleged carcinogenicity of glyphosate-based products in Federal Court of Australia, as well as acting for a 'Big Four' Australian bank and (separately) ASX100 public. · Litigation
Rocco Cecere
Rocco is an experienced offshore commercial litigator, specialising in shareholder disputes, international insolvency and restructuring, and investment fund disputes. He leads the Cayman Islands litigation team and has extensive experience conducting complex cross-border litigation, often involving fraud and asset tracing. · Litigation
Tom Goodwin
Associate. Tom is an Associate in the Insolvency and Corporate Disputes team in Cayman. He joined Collas Crill in 2024 and was admitted as an Attorney in the Cayman Islands in September 2024. Tom has experience in advising clients across a wide range of contentious matters, including large-scale litigation, insolvency proceedings, regulatory investigations and prosecutions, commissions of inquiry and alternative dispute resolution. · Insolvency
Zachary Hoskin
Partner. Zachary is an experienced offshore litigator with significant experience in trusts and financial services litigation, section 238 'fair value' appraisal proceedings and professional indemnity/insurance litigation. Zachary is also experienced in advising and assisting financial institutions that are the subject of regulatory investigations and proposed enforcement actions, and in advising trustees, beneficiaries, settlors, enforcers and protectors in relation to non-contentious and semi-contentious trust matters. Prior to joining Collas Crill, Zachary spent 10 years at another leading offshore law firm in both Guernsey and the Cayman Islands. He has completed the STEP advanced certificate in trust disputes, and has been recognised as 'one to watch' by the prestigious Private Client Global Elite in both 2019 and 2020. · Litigation