Collas Crill

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 specialized team to assist in all aspects of wills, estate planning and administration, succession planning, probate, guardianship and powers of attorney.