Wakefield Quin is a leading Bermuda law firm. With our core service boasting more than twenty lawyers, our group is strengthened with a Corporate Services Provider group offering secretarial, registered office, and director services; a regulated trust manager including private client services; and a licensed fund administration company, providing fund and private equity accounting, registered transfer agent, and management/investor services.
Since the merger of two long-standing Bermuda firms on January 1, 2001, Wakefield Quin has worked to develop a successful legacy of advising both local and international clients in the areas of banking, corporate and commercial, property, restructuring and insolvency, trusts, private client and litigation. Our legal professionals are dedicated to providing our clients with timely, sophisticated and solution-driven legal advice.
Wakefield Quin has a highly respected Corporate Department with experienced lawyers from leading international law firms and global financial institutions that focus on providing timely, sophisticated and solution-driven legal advice. We regularly advise both public and private clients on domestic and cross border mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, corporate finance, equity and debt offerings, private placements, schemes of arrangement and corporate restructurings.
Given the stability and sophistication of the jurisdiction, Bermuda is a popular choice for the establishment of investment funds, insurance and reinsurance companies, limited partnerships and joint ventures. We have extensive experience advising Bermuda entities on establishing business operations in Bermuda covering licensing, permit, reporting, employment, immigration and other regulatory requirements. Our corporate lawyers work closely with our affiliated service companies to provide a complete and seamless professional service, including incorporation, administration and management services to both our domestic and international clients.
Bermuda has grown to be the world’s third largest insurance centre after London and New York. Wakefield Quin’s insurance and reinsurance practice is geared to offering a comprehensive service to clients engaged in the insurance industry. Our lawyers advise clients on the establishment, licensing and operation of insurance companies (whether captives, reinsurers or otherwise), brokers, managers and agencies, including segregated accounts companies, portfolio companies and special purpose insurers formed as issuers of insurance linked securities.
Our insurance group advises on capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, re-domestications, financing and collateral arrangements, captive and rent-a-captive programmes, as well as rendering advice on corporate governance and regulatory compliance matters including Solvency II requirements. We also have considerable experience reviewing policies and the form and substance of insurance certificates and cover notes.
Bermuda is recognised as an effective jurisdiction to protect intellectual property rights, including rights in the form of trademarks, service marks, copyrights, patents and designs. We advise clients on the registration, commercialization and licensing of intellectual property, as well as structures to manage Intellectual Property rights in a cost efficient manner. Our lawyers have experience representing clients in both protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights.
Bermuda law provides a detailed framework for the dissolution of companies and protection of creditors’ rights on insolvency. Our insolvency and restructuring lawyers have a wide range of expertise advising on contentious and non-contentious insolvencies and restructurings. Wakefield Quin advises companies and their directors as well as creditors and professional advisers on a wide variety of matters ranging from winding-up procedures to formulating schemes of arrangement and corporate rescues for shareholder and creditor groups to enable companies to reorganize or refinance their debt and other obligations. Our lawyers advise on a number of cross-border matters, including co-ordination insolvency and corporate reorganization proceedings, and the recognition of foreign judgements and liquidators and receivers appointed in other jurisdictions.
We have considerable experience acting for liquidators and provisional liquidators. We regularly represent creditors, shareholders and directors in relation to the appointment and removal of liquidators and in the recovery and protection of assets including in cases of fraud and constructive trust proceedings.
Wakefield Quin has one of the leading commercial and residential property practices in Bermuda. Our lawyers provide innovative and practical legal advice to a broad range of industry participants in all types of property and conveyancing transactions. We regularly act for lenders (commercial banks, investment banks and finance companies), developers and equity investors in all major real estate product areas, including office, commercial, industrial, multi-family and hotel/hospitality. Our lawyers have extensive experience advising on the acquisition, development, management and disposal of real estate, including leases, sale-leasebacks, market standard and complex financings, and restructurings.
Non-Bermudians must obtain a licence from the Bermuda government to acquire real estate in Bermuda and are restricted to owning qualifying properties. Wakefield Quin has extensive experience advising on all stages of the application process and provides clients with a seamless service from start to finish.
The team comprises Michelle Stone: Head of Department, Scott Swainson: Senior Counsel, Celia Tuzo: Associate Attorney, Katrina Dickson: Associate Attorney, Isabel Tucker: Paralegal, Damita LeShore: Executive Assistant and Yvette Davis: Vault Custodian and Search Assistant.
Wakefield Quin is a LEGAL 500 Category 1 ranked firm for property transactions in the region and Michelle Stone and Scott Swainson are jointly ranked Category 1 “leading individuals” in the field.
Litigation matters are often complex and cover a number of practice areas. As a result, our Litigation Team has developed considerable experience in all areas of contention and we often act as counsel for both large companies and private individuals. Our lawyers have considerable experience acting in broad commercial disputes, insurance and reinsurance litigation, trust and property litigation, fund litigation, insolvency and restructuring, contentious and non-contentious employment and immigration matters, matrimonial litigation and general family law, debt collection and probate. We regularly appear in all levels of the judiciary, from Magistrates’ Court to the Court of Appeal (which is Bermuda’s highest appellate Court).
While litigation may be necessary in some cases, we take the time to understand your needs and endeavor to resolve your case by the most efficient means possible. In appropriate cases, our lawyers can advise on the various alternative dispute resolution methods, such as arbitration. In addition, our lawyers can be instructed to make applications to the Supreme Court for interim injunctions on an urgent basis. We understand that litigation can often be stressful, so we do all we can to handle each case as expeditiously and efficiently as possible while always remaining strategic in order to obtain a desirable outcome.
Bermuda is a leading jurisdiction in which to establish and administer trusts. Whilst largely based upon English law, Bermuda has developed an effective and well regarded legislative framework for Bermuda trusts. Trusts are commonly utilized to achieve objectives such as asset protection, wealth management and preservation, tax planning, and for a variety of other business and commercial objectives. Our trust lawyers regularly act for trustees, beneficiaries and settlors, as well as protectors and enforcers, and have considerable experience advising international corporate clients on a broad range of commercial trust structures such as insurance trusts, special purpose trusts, pension trusts, unit trusts and employee benefit trusts. Through Winchester Global Trust Company Ltd., our affiliated fully-licensed trust company, we are able to provide our clients with a full range of trustee services and trust administration services, including acting as a trustee for discretionary trusts.
Wakefield Quin also advises charities, foundations, families and high net worth individuals on investment structures, international estate planning and private trust company arrangements. We frequently prepare wills and codicils and apply for grants of probate and letters of administration to ensure the orderly succession of assets which may entail resolving complex issues of private international law in cross-border matters.
