Cox Hallett Wilkinson Limited

Litigation

Senior Associate

Matthew Watson has established himself as a trusted practitioner in Bermuda servicing CHW’s largest cross-border corporate, trust and estate litigation clients. He prides himself on providing responsive and strategic advice reflective of a thoughtful understanding of legal, personal and commercial considerations.

He has acted on some of the largest contentious trust cases of significant complexity and quantum before the Bermuda Courts in the past year achieving success in respect of each matter that proceeded to judgment. This has included successfully acting for: (a) beneficiaries of In the Matter of XYZ Trusts which concerned an application to bless a restructuring of the trust assets part of which involved a contentious proposed amendment to permanently disqualify a family director; (b) trustees of In the Matter of G Trusts in a multi-faceted variation of trusts; (c) represented a family branch of beneficiaries of In the Matter of X Trusts who resisted an application of other beneficiaries to remove the trustees from office.

Matthew also regularly acts in respect of complex commercial litigation, often with related proceedings abroad usually arising out of companies law, contract, shareholder or director disputes and investment. He is equally adept assisting local clients in respect of banking, professional negligence and complex matrimonial matters.

Prior to relocating to Bermuda, Matthew practiced in Australia with involvement in some of the most substantial litigation before the Australian Courts, including a complex multi-party electronic trial that ran for more than a year concerning failed management investment schemes that resulted in a judgment of over 4,200 paragraphs analysing a breadth of contractual, corporate, investment and equitable areas of the law. There were also related cases on privilege and insurance issues which resulted in proceedings to the Court of Appeal of Victoria and High Court of Australia respectively.

English

Matthew was admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2010 and High Court of Australia in 2015 (now not practising). He relocated to Bermuda in 2015 and is a practising member of the Bermuda Bar. Matthew was a founding member of the Bermuda Young Lawyers Group in 2017.

LLB and BComm, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia 2010Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Leo Cussen Institute, 2010