Ogier

Ogier

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Lawyers

Bryan De Verneuil-Smith

Bryan De Verneuil-Smith

Ogier, Guernsey

Work Department

Dispute Resolution; Trusts Advisory Group

Position

Partner

Career

Bryan is a partner in Ogier's Dispute Resolution team based in Guernsey. He specialises in commercial litigation, contentious trusts, insolvency, fund disputes, shareholder disputes, fraud and asset tracing, commercial and residential property disputes, regulatory and all types of insurance and reinsurance related disputes. Bryan has represented clients in the Royal Court on various commercial matters. In particular he was part of the team of advocates who represented and successfully defended the executive directors of Carlyle Capital Corporation, an investment fund, against a claim for nearly $2 billion, in Guernsey’s biggest ever civil trial (lasting nearly six months in 2016). He continued to act for the executive directors in the appeal of the Royal Court decision heard in October 2018 and was involved in the matter until it settled in May 2020. Some of the cases Bryan has worked on include: - advising a large shareholder of a Guernsey fund relation to claims it could bring against the directors of the fund and related parties for fraud, misrepresentation, breach of duty and mismanagement of litigation that had been conducted in Guernsey and a foreign jurisdiction - advising a Guernsey trustee in dealing with an investigation launched by the US tax authorities against the trust - acting on behalf of a large international Bank as the primary creditor in applying to have a Guernsey company, which held a multi-million pound London property, placed into administration because of a debt it owed the Bank which exceeded £50 million and then seeking the recognition of the appointment of the joint administrators in England and Wales - acting for insured architects and other construction professionals facing claims for professional negligence - advising directors in connection with GFSC regulatory investigations - acting for commercial clients, both tenants and landlords, on disputes relating to rent and repair obligations, surrender agreements, dilapidations and building and repair works Bryan regularly delivers webinars on contentious trusts issues and directors' duties to trust and corporate clients. He has also written articles on a variety of subjects including Guernsey trust cases, pre-action disclosure, the collapse of funds, the solvency test and the Carlyle case. Admitted in: 2016 - Guernsey 2003 - England and Wales

Languages

English and French

Memberships

Bryan is a member of the Institute of Directors, the Guernsey International Legal Association, INSOL and ARIES (Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Experts - the Channel Islands chapter of INSOL).

Education

Admitted in:2016 - Guernsey2003 - England and Wales

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