The appointments of Nigel Meeson, QC and Fraser Hughes gives Conyers Dill & Pearman a litigation foothold in the Cayman Islands and augments their rapidly growing corporate practice.
Conyers Dill & Pearman is very pleased to announce the appointments of Nigel Meeson, QC as the Head of Litigation and Fraser Hughes as an associate as they launch their Litigation practice in the Cayman Islands.
Nigel, who is widely regarded as one of the top barristers in the UK, and Fraser, an experienced Canadian litigator specialising commercial litigation, insolvency, bankruptcy and restructuring, both joined the offshore law firm on June 19, 2007.
Nigel joins Conyers from Quadrant Chambers. He has been in practice for 25 years and a Queens Counsel since 2002. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a CEDR qualified mediator and has sat as a Recorder in both Crime and Civil cases. He is also admitted in California. Nigel is known as an innovative, academic, but commercially minded lawyer, and has a reputation as a fearless advocate. Having built up an international practice focused on the maritime and insurance industries, there are few areas of the law that he has not encountered and his broad commercial background is ideally suited to the offshore litigation environment.
Fraser articled with Blake, Cassels & Graydon in Toronto, was admitted to practice to the Court of Appeal for Ontario, Canada, then joined Bennett Jones LLP in Toronto (formerly of Smith Lyons LLP). He received his B.A. in Politics/Economics from Trent University in Peterborough, Canada in 1991, his LL.B (Eng) at University of London, England in 1996 and his LL.B. (Can) at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada in 1998.
As a mature financial centre, the Cayman Islands offer a sophisticated and challenging litigation environment focusing on cross border insolvency, corporate restructuring, general corporate issues and trust litigation amongst others.
Richard Finlay, Managing Partner of Conyers Cayman Islands office commented: "We are extremely proud to have landed a barrister of the calibre of Nigel to lead our litigation practice in the Cayman Islands. Augmenting this with the appointment of Fraser provides us with a very strong, experienced and capable team. We have consistently built our presence here in Cayman by ensuring we have the highest quality and most appropriate people on our team. These appointments are further testament to this strategy."
Conyers has, for decades, enjoyed a world renowned Bermuda litigation practice, headed by Narinder Hargun. In the British Virgin Islands, Conyers litigation practice, under the stewardship of Mark Fort￩, has rapidly risen to be one of the most respected commercial litigation practices in the jurisdiction and the appointments of Meeson and Hughes is anticipated to have similar results for Conyers Cayman office.
With these additions, the Cayman Islands office of Conyers Dill & Pearman has a complement of a dozen lawyers and this is expected to grow to. This expansion has prompted Conyers to move offices to Boundary Hall building in the Cricket Square complex of George Town.
The office move, launch of the litigation practice and Conyers' practice expansion into servicing the local Cayman market will be announced and celebrated at a launch party at the Grand Old House just outside of George Town on the evening of Wednesday, June 20. The function, at which hundreds of representatives from the local legal and business community are expected to attend, will also be attended by partners from Conyers' Bermuda and BVI offices, including Robin Mayor and Mark Fort￩.