Guillaume Staal

Office Location

Jersey

Short Biography

Guillaume advises clients in respect of a range of issues including contractual disputes, enforcement of foreign judgments and associated freezing and disclosure orders and insolvency matters. Guillaume has been involved in a range of innovative Jersey cases including securing an interim freezing order over a trust in aid of proceedings brought by a non-beneficiary before overcoming the ‘firewall provisions’ of the Trusts (Jersey) Law 1984 to obtain directions in Jersey giving substantial effect to an English order setting aside the trust, one of Jersey’s first statutory Hastings Bass and mistake cases, and establishing that a common intention constructive trust may (as a matter of Jersey law) arise in relation to a loan account to a Jersey company. Guillaume graduated with an LLB English and French Law from King’s College London and a Maitrise en droit (French law degree) from La Sorbonne, Paris. Guillaume is also a native French speaker.

What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?

The Rigatoni

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

Prepare everything as if you were the one ultimately required to argue the point(s) in Court. As a graduate starting a legal career that advice served as a useful reminder to always ensure that evidence and legal arguments were considered as thoroughly and carefully as possible - instead of leaving that to more senior colleagues.

What was your first job?

Working for Her Majesty's Attorney General in Jersey assisting with criminal prosecutions.

What is the book you recommend to everyone?

Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth

What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?