Ganado Advocates

Malta has become a hub for international businesses that have opted to incorporate or redomicile their corporate structures. By way of its strong regulatory framework, Malta has fast developed into one of the most attractive European jurisdictions for new corporate structures and redomiciliation.

The island offers an extensive range of corporate vehicles such as companies, limited partnerships, European companies (societas europaea), trusts and foundations. Malta’s parliament recognises the importance of business success to the nation’s prosperity and thus is committed to developing key industries, such as financial services, blockchain, ICT, shipping and aviation, as well as to attracting more direct foreign investment (FDI).

Ganado Advocates’ credentials as a business law firm are long established. We act for a large number of corporate clients and regularly advises on various corporate law and commercial law matters - from company restructuring, legal due diligence, cross-border mergers, joint ventures, public service contracts and partnerships, to company dissolution and liquidation.

We provide both the legal analysis and administrative support required for successful corporate start-ups, company formation and continue to assist in relation to applicable legal and regulatory requirements. We are regularly involved in a number of local and international mergers and acquisitions, including some of the largest and most complex transactions.

We work closely with our colleagues in several of the other practice areas and draw on the firm’s resources to meet clients’ overall requirements, in particular, in respect of employment, corporate finance and tax, investment services and funds, banking and finance, data protection, intellectual property, litigation and competition.

Malta attracts a significant amount of people to take up employment opportunities on the island, as it provides an attractive fiscal regime, a stable political and economic climate, first class industrial relations and an appealing location in the centre of the Mediterranean. Malta’s workforce is multilingual, with the absolute majority of the population speaking both English and Maltese, is highly skilled and adapts quickly to new technology and market requirements.

Ganado Advocates has been a long-standing leader in Malta, assisting clients with solutions relating to employment. The firm works very closely with policy makers on employment law and the partner leading our employment law practice represents the interests of employers in the name of the Chamber of Commerce on Malta’s Employment Relations Board - a consultative board aimed at tendering advice on employment conditions to the Minister responsible for employment and industrial relations.

Our employment team acts for many of the islands’ employers on an array of areas such as the drafting of contracts of employment, employment handbooks, employment policies, share option schemes, pension schemes and other related documents. We also assist clients in relation to dismissals, termination of employment, redundancies and collective redundancies, matters relating to employee information and consultation, the transfer of undertakings and employee protection, employment discrimination and harassment, industrial disputes and all types of litigation connected with such matters offering down to earth solution based advice.

Malta’s insurance and reinsurance (re/insurance) sector has continued to expand and attract major foreign companies to the island. The country’s ongoing success stems from its strong regulatory and compliance framework, its modern and approachable regulator and an incentivised business environment.

The Maltese re/insurance sector includes insurance managers, captives, brokers, direct underwriters and reinsurers, each of which may be structured in varying corporate forms, from stand-alone limited liability companies, protected or incorporated cell structures, to reinsurance special purpose vehicles (RSPVs). Re/insurance companies based in Malta can take advantage of the EU passporting regime which allows these companies to do business in other EU member states.

Ganado Advocates is considered to be one of the leaders in the insurance legal sphere in Malta, evidenced through its drafting of local legislation relating to the captive sector as well as in relation to protected cell company and incorporated cell company legislation.

Much change has been taking place in the re/insurance industry, with the advent of the Solvency II Directive, and the Insurance Distribution Directive, which have overhauled the regulatory landscape for re/insurance undertakings and insurance intermediaries. Our re/insurance team has the expertise, knowledge and resources to support these players with adapting to the emerging regulatory landscape and to assist them in taking advantage of any opportunities that may arise as a result of such changes.

Our specialist team of insurance lawyers and regulatory advisors assists clients with:

• the setting-up and authorisation of re/insurers and intermediaries;
• the structuring and restructuring of insurance companies;
• portfolio transfers;
• mergers and acquisitions;
• the establishment of protected cell companies;
• business opportunities arising in relation to incorporated cell companies;
• passporting into other EU/EEA jurisdictions;
• the provision of services on a cross-border basis;
• advice on any transactional work;
• drafting of policy documentation;
• drafting of reinsurance treaties and other related documentation; and
• ongoing regulatory compliance.

Our re/insurance team works closely with lawyers from other practice areas to provide its clients a holistic service, including insurance litigation issues, finance and data protection.

Malta’s laws and political thrust are apt to help you derive the maximum commercial value of your intellectual property, whilst protecting the authenticity of your work and brand. Malta’s intellectual property (IP) laws promote development in the industry to the best possible level, whilst enjoying the benefits of a legal system that is largely harmonised throughout the EU. This ensures that intellectual property rights arising in Malta are easily recognised and enforceable throughout the whole of the EU and vice versa. Malta has also ratified major IP Conventions, thus ensuring that the recognition of IP rights arising in Malta extends beyond the EU.

Through its dedicated team of highly experienced professionals, Ganado Advocates is able to understand the challenges faced by its clients in the IP, telecommunications, media and technology sectors and provide practical solutions in a timely and effective manner. The team advises on the full range of contentious and non-contentious issues in the technology, media and entertainment space, registers trade marks and designs in Malta and Europe and manages IP portfolios for its clients, drafts and negotiates IP related agreements, advises and assists on financing and acquisition projects, and assists with obtaining regulatory authorisations and clearances.

Ganado Advocates has a specific IP litigation focus and represents clients in infringement lawsuits and arbitration proceedings. It also acts as representative for brand owners in customs procedures, including applications for action, to ensure that counterfeit goods entering or traversing the Maltese territorial waters are immediately seized and destroyed in a timely manner.

Malta’s unique hybrid judicial system is the product of various influences coming in from different legal systems throughout the years. The Maltese judicial system, comprising courts and tribunals for the resolution of all forms of legal disputes, provides for various offices including judges, magistrates, commissioners for justice, adjudicators, assistants and arbitrators.

There is an array of options available to litigants in the area of dispute resolution in Malta, court litigation being the most popular. Other forms of dispute resolution systems include arbitration, mediation, tribunals and boards. Malta also provides other modes of dispute resolution outside of court, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

Ganado Advocates’ litigation and dispute resolution team has an extensive and well-respected litigation and arbitration practice, concentrated mainly around commercial and maritime litigation, covering highly technical and specialised disputes. It is one of the leading dispute resolution teams in Malta.

A notable amount of litigation involves an international commercial dimension in the areas of admiralty law, banking, insurance, gaming, corporate, international commercial arbitration, intellectual property, contractual disputes, insolvency, public procurement, competition and debt collection for foreign creditors including enforcement of foreign judgements and awards. The team assists many local and foreign clients in their lawsuits before Maltese courts, arbitration and international fora in specialised areas such as fund litigation and disputes involving documentary credits.

The team has assisted clients at the Maltese Superior Courts, specialised tribunals, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, international arbitrations under the leading rules (ICC, LCIA) and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.