Caribbean & The Americas

We have extensive experience of appearing in cases in the major Caribbean jurisdictions and across the Americas.

Caribbean


Our members have extensive experience across various Caribbean territories and have acted on some of the largest, most high-profile and complex disputes in the region. We have particular recent experience of proceedings in the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

Several members are admitted to practice in the Cayman Islands (on an ad hoc basis) and in the British Virgin Islands (‘BVI’) and members can make the necessary applications for admission in these jurisdictions and elsewhere as required.

Our Caribbean work covers and complements several of our leading areas of English practice, including banking and finance, commercial disputes, cases involving company law, restructuring and insolvency, arbitration and civil fraud.

We maintain strong relationships with the leading firms in the Caribbean as well as with mainstream UK and US firms with clients involved in offshore litigation.

Our clients have included a number of central, investment and retail banks and financial institutions in the Caribbean, as well as funds, insurers, insolvency office holders, directors and individuals.

Members have been admitted to appear in cases in the Cayman Islands since the 1990s, and have had numerous cases reported in the Cayman Islands Law Reports.

Our work has included some of the most high-profile cases to be heard in the region, including the Jahre litigation (which was said to be the longest ever piece of litigation), the Weavering litigation (a leading decision of the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands on the duties of fund directors), and AHAB v Saad & Others, the largest fraud case ever to be tried in the Cayman Islands. The Court of Appeal’s judgment, upholding the trial judgment entered by the Chief Justice in favour of the AwalCo Defendants (for whom various members have acted), was handed down in December 2021.

We also have extensive experience of acting in the BVI, where, for example, we acted in the long-running dispute between Russia’s Alfa Group, Turkey’s Cukurova Holdings and the Scandinavian Telia group over the ownership of Turkcell, Turkey’s largest mobile telephone company. In addition to the usual forms of commercial litigation, we are well-known for our work in company, insolvency and shareholder disputes in the BVI.

Much of this work, in both the Cayman Islands Grand Court and the BVI Commercial Division, has given rise to appeals to the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal and to the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, as well as to the Privy Council.

In addition, we have specialist experience of cases in other Caribbean jurisdictions, such as the Turks & Caicos Islands (acting for the financial services commission in a dispute regarding conducting insurance business in the jurisdiction) and Trinidad & Tobago (representing the Central Bank in the long-running Public Enquiry into the collapse of Colonial Life Mutual Insurance Company).

For more information on our experience in the Caribbean, or to discuss a specific enquiry, please speak to our clerking team.

The Americas


North America


We have considerable experience of North American disputes and counter-parties, in cases in all commercial fields, but most often involving banking, commercial crime and energy.

Recent examples include representing a Russian entrepreneur and banker subject to criminal and civil proceedings and mutual legal assistance treaty requests launched by the Deposit Insurance Agency of Russia in multiple jurisdictions (Russia, Austria, Liechtenstein, Cyprus, New York) for fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering. We also acted for UBS in a forex manipulation case brought in New York, London and Zurich.

In addition, we have extensive experience of acting in investor treaty and other forms of arbitration, seated in Washington DC. For example, we were instructed for a Canadian mining company in an ICSID claim against the Republic of Kazakhstan, heard in both Washington DC and London.

Several of our members are (non-practising) members of the New York Bar.

Latin America


Members have considerable experience of disputes involving Latin America, both before the English Court and in arbitration. The Sulamerica litigation, for example, concerned the governing law of a London arbitration clause contained in a contract governed by Brazilian law and containing an exclusive Brazilian arbitration clause.

We also have extensive aviation experience in the region, including in insurance-related matters and in aircraft finance claims. In addition, we have experience of insurance and international arbitration claims arising from disputes in jurisdictions such as Venezuela.

In the banking and finance area, we have acted on investment banking litigation over compensation in respect of credit linked notes and swap transactions following the bond default of Ecuador, and in an investment notes dispute between a US investment bank and the Argentine Government.

A recent example of our work relating to Latin America is defending Argentina against a substantial claim by noteholders, arising from an alleged default on Argentina’s GDP-linked sovereign-debt securities.

For more information on our experience in the Americas, or to discuss a specific enquiry, please contact our clerking team.

Menu

Close

Portfolio Builder

Select the expertise that you would like to download or add to the portfolio

Download    Add to portfolio   
Portfolio
Title Type CV Email

Remove All

Download


Click here to share this shortlist.
(It will expire after 30 days.)