ABVI Law

Michael’s legal practice covers (i) dispute resolution (litigation and arbitration), shareholder disputes, corporate law, insolvency, trusts, commercial, and civil actions to recover the proceeds of fraud, and (ii) real estate and development work.

Michael routinely works with law firms, insolvency practitioners, banks and fiduciary service providers with respect to multi-jurisdictional transactions and disputes.  

He is regularly retained as an expert to provide evidence of BVI law for use in foreign legal and arbitration proceedings.

He sits as an arbitrator, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. 

Admissions and Appointments

Michael was appointed as a Deputy High Court Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in 2011, and as a Deputy Court of Appeal Judge in 2017.

He was appointed as a Queen’s Counsel in 2013. 

Michael served as the Chairman of the Financial Services Appeal Board from 2016 to 2020– the statutory body dealing with appeals against decisions of the BVI Financial Services Commission. 

He has sat in the Court of Appeal in the British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, and St. Lucia.

Michael is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and is a panel member at the BVI International Arbitration Centre. As an arbitrator, he is asked to resolve a wide range of disputes – not only business/commercial disputes similar to his legal practice, but also general contract, matrimonial, and general damage claims.  His experience as a lawyer and deputy Judge makes him particularly suitable to serve as chairman on a 3 panel arbitration with two arbitrators who are experts in the technical subject matter of the dispute.

He also acts from time to time as a Referee – primarily dealing with Corporate and Commercial matters, particularly in Anguilla.

Michael holds, and has held, a limited number of company directorships, both executive and nonexecutive.  He is valued for his general commercial experience, his tendency to challenge and probe, and his good knowledge of corporate governance matters. He is a director of the BVI Recovery and Development Agency, and a non-executive director of the Government owned International Corporate Centre in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE.