Offshore law firm Appleby last week announced a dramatic extension of its global network with the planned opening of offices in Dubai and in Zurich in Switzerland.
The expansion will enable Appleby to further extend the services it offers and will provide clients with greater access to the high growth Middle East, Asian, Indian and African capital and to private bank and institutional services in Switzerland.
The new offices, which will begin operation in early 2009, will increase Appleby’s focus in high growth international corporate and private wealth markets. The office will focus on investment funds, private equity, structured finance, major projects, property and private client services.
“Our driving strategy has been to be the leading provider of legal, fiduciary and administration services in the offshore world. We see significant opportunities in the Gulf region and the expansion of our private wealth business in the more traditional Swiss market,” said Huw Moses, Managing Partner of the Cayman Islands office.
“The new offices will provide our corporate, institutional and private clients with greater resources both in the locations and time zones in which they do business and a broader choice across the key offshore jurisdictions to suit their needs. We believe that the move will reinforce Appleby’s position as the first choice for clients in the offshore sector.”
The Dubai office will be staffed by two partners, including Jeanne Bartlett, head of the firm’s global structured finance practice, with another partner and an assistant. The office will be initially staffed by a partner and an assistant.
Appleby is one of the very few offshore firms to open in Switzerland and is the first of the “offshore magic circle” firms to do so. The firm says its strategy has been to focus on locations of significant corporate or private wealth and the new offices will provide clients with direct access to the world’s leading offshore jurisdictions in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Jersey and Mauritius.
Appleby said it has a significant inflow of work from the GCC region and the Dubai office will ensure this is expanded directly into the core offshore markets providing Middle East clients with a significant choice of offshore jurisdiction.
The Zurich office will focus on both corporate and private wealth markets providing private banks, wealth management and other institutions as well as Middle East and Asian based clients whose funds are managed in Switzerland, with direct access to high level offshore services.
On the corporate side the office will focus on the insurance and funds sectors again to provide direct access to the firm’s specialist expertise in the Bermuda and Cayman markets.
Appleby has worked closely with institutional clients in North America, Europe and Asia who have clearly indicated the level of resources that they require from a global offshore services firm. Driven by client demand, the firm has expanded rapidly in the last three years with a total legal and professional staff of over 700 including 54 partners.
The company said it is the only offshore legal, fiduciary and administration service provider with a major foothold in five of the world’s leading offshore business centres, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Jersey and Mauritius as well as offices in London, Hong Kong and now Switzerland and Dubai.