Higgs & Johnson

Audley specialises in various areas of Civil and Commercial Litigation, with a particular focus on employment law, admiralty law, insurance law, intellectual property litigation, and personal injury litigation. Audley has significant experience as Counsel in The Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

Christel Sands-Feaste

Experience in corporate and commercial law, asset financing, resort development and operations, gaming law and regulation and international trust and company administration. Acted in all aspects of commercial transactions including securing governmental and regulatory approvals, mergers and acquisitions, asset financing, private placements of offshore securities, investment fund structuring and creation and estate planning.

Karen Brown

Karen's areas of practice include Admiralty Law, Family Law, and Commercial and Civil Litigation, where she has a particular focus on Industrial Relations & Employment law. She also has vast experience in Conveyancing and Real Property Law and other regulatory matters, including applications to The Bahamas Investments Board and other governmental entities. Karen has also assisted in the conduct of international financing transactions.

Leroy Smith

Leroy is a Partner in the firm’s Litigation practice group in The Bahamas. He is a seasoned litigator and accredited mediator with an active practice strategically focused on complex trust and estate advice and litigation, and commercial law. In his trust and estate practice, Leroy advises fiduciaries and private clients in all aspects of Bahamas trust law, with particular emphasis on the drafting and administration of Bahamian trusts. His commercial practice involves a broad spectrum of substantive areas, including contentious and non-contentious commercial matters (claims for breach of contract, directors’ and shareholders’ disputes and asset-tracing and recovery matters), telecommunications law and maritime law. He also regularly represents local and international companies and insurers in relation to a range of personal injury, defamation and other tort-based claims.

Oscar Johnson, Jr.

Global Managing Director

Philip Dunkley KC

Senior Partner; specialises in complex commercial and chancery litigation (appearing in the BCCI, Grupo Torras cases and the Oracle Fund liquidation), commercial and shipping transactions; civil litigation; admiralty law and shipping; and private wealth management.

Portia Nicholson

Portia is a Corporate and Commercial lawyer with over 31 years’ experience. She has acted as lead counsel to, or been involved in, many domestic and cross border commercial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, high value structured finance transactions, initial public offerings and private placements of securities, as well as commercial real estate developments.

Stephen Melvin

Stephen has significant experience in the representation of local and international property developers and cruise ship companies with private island developments & ports. He specialises in:- foreign direct investment; the sale and acquisition of hotels, marinas and resort developments (mixed use projects) and all aspects of project/development finance. He has been involved in all aspects of the master planning of a number of resorts and mixed use developments as well as all legal services related to Bahamas Government negotiations, advice on investment regulations and applications, including Heads of Agreements and Hotel Encouragement Act Concessions. Stephen also services high net worth clients with all matters related to real estate investments and advice in regard to structuring for estate planning purposes and tax efficiency. Stephen is also the Nassau head of the firm’s Abaco office and has been involved with a number of Abaco’s resorts and developments.

Sterling Cooke

Partner and chair of the Real Estate and Development practice group, Sterling has extensive expertise in all aspects of real estate law, having practiced for over 29 years. His primary practice includes representing local and international real estate investors and lenders in connection with mortgage loan and construction financing and loan acquisitions, complex transactions involving the purchase, sale, refinancing, leasing and subleasing of residential homes, multi-family buildings, retail complexes, office and warehouse buildings and other commercial properties for individuals and commercial entities, and advising on a wide range or real estate issues including title commitments and title insurance, adverse possession, issues affecting title, easement and access issues, and commercial and residential foreclosures. His professional practice also includes, Commercial Law, Probate and Estate Administration, Maritime Law and International Financing transactions involving Bahamian registered ships and companies.”

Surinder Deal

Corporate and commercial law, banking law, securities, gaming law, real estate law; secured and unsecured financing, merchant shipping (registration and financing).

Tara Burnside

Tara is a partner in the firm’s Litigation, Financial Services Law & Regulation, and Insolvency & Restructuring practice groups. She has detailed knowledge of the Bahamian insolvency regime and has worked on a number of cross-border insolvencies and restructurings including the compulsory liquidation of Moore Park Funding and the $100 million insolvency of the Realto Group. She is regularly retained to advise insolvency practitioners, and is a Fellow of INSOL International. Tara also specialises in commercial disputes, including shareholder disputes and contentious and non-contentious employment matters, involving both individual and collective rights. She has appeared on petitions for just and equitable winding up and relief from unfair prejudice and oppression. She has experience acting for and against directors facing allegations of breach of fiduciary duty.

Tara Archer-Glasgow

Tara supervises the Asset Recovery Unit and chairs the Intellectual Property group. She is a highly experienced Dispute Resolution lawyer with more than 21 years of legal experience in all aspects of commercial litigation, with a particular focus on banking and compliance, employment, company law and admiralty law. She regularly appears as counsel or co-counsel in many important cases in all of the courts of The Bahamas and has appeared before the Privy Council in England. Tara provides legal advice to individuals, major financial service providers and global corporations regarding multi-jurisdictional litigation, shareholder disputes, fraud, asset-tracing and internal operations. She has assisted clients in the tracing and recovery of millions of dollars, and represents clients in franchise and intellectual property disputes.

Vivienne Gouthro

Partner and chair of the Maritime & Shipping practice group, Vivienne is a corporate and commercial lawyer with experience in chambers in England, Spain, Gibraltar and The Bahamas. Specialising in ship and international finance, Vivienne acts primarily as local counsel for major international financial institutions in the European and Asian markets, providing legal advice on complex international finance matters and all aspects of international maritime transactions and commercial acquisitions and sales. She also guides ship owners through the registration of pleasure yachts and large commercial vessels on the Bahamian Register of Ships.In addition to her maritime practice, Vivienne has extensive experience in commercial law, real estate and development, private client and wealth management and intellectual property law. She counsels diverse corporate and private clients in the sale and purchase of real estate and related financing, as well as on matters relating to wills, probate and administration of estates, intellectual property and immigration law. Her practice also extends to provide a full range of corporate services to clients, including the incorporation and licensing of local companies and obtaining of all governmental and regulatory approvals. She acts for major domestic banks, hotels and local institutions, and has assisted in the purchase and financing of large developments on the Island of Grand Bahama.

Zarina Fitzgerald

Chair of the Commercial Transactions group having acted in all aspects of commercial transactions, including large scale structured finance transactions, initial public offerings and private placements of offshore securities, mergers and acquisitions, and the registration and securitisation involving vessels and in real estate transactions.

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