Fraser Allister
Fraser Allister
Managing Associate | Bedell Cristin
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
Cayman Islands
Short Biography
Fraser specialises in the creation of offshore wealth planning structures. He is qualified in BVI and the Cayman Islands. Prior to joining Bedell Cristin he worked for another offshore firm, based in the Cayman Islands, for five years. He advises trust companies, family offices, high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals and families. He also works with onshore law firms and their clients in designing and operating wealth planning structures.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Elspeth Talbot Rice KC
Elspeth Talbot Rice KC
Barrister | XXIV Old Buildings
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Dispute Resolution or Arbitration
Estates: Contentious
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
Described in the directories as "the smiling assassin" Elspeth is a highly sought after court advocate who commands a wealth of international trusts expertise. She acts in international trust matters across the globe, combining her knowledge and depth of experience with incisive legal analysis, clarity of expression, practicality, supreme approachability, energy and zest, a strong court presence and superb advocacy. A market source has said " Elspeth embodies all of the qualities we look for in our leading counsel: intellectual rigour, fierce determination, engagement with the client and the detail of the case, composure under pressure, commerciality and articulate leadership. She manages also to be highly responsive, accessible, energetic and incredibly positive. This combination of skills and personality is incredibly hard to find in one person and consequently she is much in demand in the big cases, where her sense of purpose and direction are of immense value."
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
MCR, Lincoln's Inn
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
trust your instincts and be yourself
What was your first job?
riding instructor
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Shardlake series and the Burton and Lamb series
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
greater use of AI products which are being developed.
Esmond Brown
Esmond Brown
Counsel | Appleby
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Contentious
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
Cayman Islands
Short Biography
Esmond is Counsel based in the Cayman Islands. His practice spans contentious and non-contentious trusts and private client advisory work. He advises UHNW individuals, trustees and other intermediaries and is also qualified in the BVI.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Bacaro in Cayman. A little known chain, Pizza Express in the UK.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
A career is a marathon not a sprint.
What was your first job?
Selling shirts on Jermyn Street.
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Lewin on Trusts.
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
More digital assets disputes and capacity issues continuing.
Edward Cumming KC
Edward Cumming KC
Barrister | XXIV Old Buildings
JURISDICTION
England and Wales, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man
TOP SPECIALISMS
Commercial Litigation
Estates: Contentious
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
“The perfect modern barrister” and “the absolute best”, Edward Cumming KC has acted in some of the most significant and highest-profile trust and succession litigation in recent years. He is recommended as a leading KC in nine separate categories in the latest Chambers & Partners, and eight separate categories in the latest Legal 500. The directories, which have long recognised Edward as a “lion in court”, describe him as “just an amazing individual” and “a very smooth advocate, who is persuasive, articulate and nimble on his feet”, saying “Edward is an absolute superstar. He has a phenomenal work rate, huge intellect, an elephantine memory, and [is] utterly charming with it”. “He works incredibly hard, is commercial, is an outstanding advocate and is loved by clients for being aggressive and knowing their cases inside out. He is the first name that comes to mind for any high value and difficult case”.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Tomos Parry’s Brat
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Don’t believe the hype.
What was your first job?
Receptionist at the Premier Travel Inn at Tewkesbury Strensham services on the M5
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Believe It by Nick Foles
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Deborah Barker Roye
Deborah Barker Roye
Counsel | Ogier
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Dispute Resolution or Arbitration
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
Cayman Islands
Short Biography
Deborah's expertise includes contentious trusts and estates matters regularly acting for beneficiaries, trustees, executors, protectors and other fiduciaries in relation to high value, multi-jurisdictional trust structures and complex estates. She also has extensive experience in complex, multi-jurisdictional commercial fraud and asset tracing litigation. Deborah is the author of two leading practitioner text books on Cayman Islands Law; 'Civil Litigation in the Cayman Islands' and 'Criminal Litigation in the Cayman Islands' both of which are used extensively by Cayman Islands attorneys and the members of the local and visiting judiciary. Deborah has contributed to the Cayman Islands Law Reports and Cayman Islands Law Journal and is a member the Editorial Board of the Cayman Islands Law Reports. She is Chair of the Human Rights Commission, appointed by the Governor of the Cayman Islands to the Human Rights Commission in 2020 and a member of the Cayman Islands Criminal Justice Reform Committee.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Don't wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Chris Duncan
Chris Duncan
Partner | Carey Olsen
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Corporate Law
Office Location
Cayman Islands
Short Biography
Chris Duncan is a partner in the corporate team, based in the Cayman Islands. He leads our fintech and digital assets group across both the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, being one of the few Cayman and BVI dual qualified advisors in the fintech space.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Charles Moore
Charles Moore
Partner | Harneys
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Contentious
Trusts: Contentious
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
Cayman Islands
Short Biography
Charles advises HNW individuals, families and institutional clients in relation to the creation, restructuring, ongoing management and termination of Cayman trusts. He is also experienced in representing trustees, beneficiaries, protectors, administrators and other office holders in relation to all manner of trust and estate applications and proceedings. He is recommended in the leading legal directories including, Legal Weeks “Private Client Global Elite”, Chambers HNW and Legal 500 (which recognised him as a next generation partner with clients saying he is “going to be a real jewel in the private client disputes world in Cayman: very good with clients, highly responsive and knowledgeable.”)
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Morgan's in Grand Cayman
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Work hard, play hard. Be straightforward, with clients, colleagues, courts and opponents alike. Integrity is an absolute prerequisite.
What was your first job?
Milk run (glass bottles!)
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Pillars of the Earth
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
A continuation of HNWIs and family offices relocating to the Cayman Islands. Some more s.64A (statutory Hastings-Bass) cases and contentious trust and estate matters in Cayman.
Carlos de Serpa Pimentel
Carlos de Serpa Pimentel
Partner/Group Head Private Client Trust | Appleby
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Contentious
Trusts: Contentious
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
Cayman Islands
Short Biography
Carlos is a Partner and Group Head, Private Client & Trusts of Appleby. He has practised as an attorney in the Cayman Islands since 2001. He was called to the Bar of England & Wales in 1990 and admitted to the BVI Bar in 2004. He has been a member of STEP for over 20 years and is a member of the International Academy of Estate & Trust Law. Carlos has appeared in many of the Cayman Islands' leading trusts & estates cases over the last two decades. Carlos advises trustees, high net worth individuals and family offices on Cayman and BVI trust and estate matters. He also acts as a protector and trustee of several Cayman Islands trusts and a director of private trust companies. In addition, Carlos has previously acted as a court appointed guardian for minors and persons lacking capacity, as well as a court appointed executor.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
The Savoy Grill
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Never give up!
What was your first job?
Early morning newspaper delivery boy
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
A Time of Gifts by Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
More disputes and increasing use of Foundation Companies and Private Trust companies
Bhavesh Patel
Bhavesh Patel
Partner | Travers Thorp Alberga
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Commercial Litigation
Estates: Contentious
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
Cayman Islands
Short Biography
Bhavesh is an experienced litigator specialising in commercial litigation and contentious trusts and private client disputes. He has advised international clients on a variety of high profile matters and frequently appears before the Cayman and BVI Courts. He is a regular speaker at international conferences, and often provides expert evidence on matters of Cayman or BVI law in proceedings in the USA, PRC/Hong Kong, and arbitrations. Bhavesh is recognized and ranked in legal directories for commercial litigation and private client disputes and is an overseas member of the Chancery Bar Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute, COMBAR, and serves on committees within INSOL and RISA Cayman.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Taikun or Bacaro in Cayman, Il Borro Tuscan Bistro in London
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Worrying is like a rocking chair, gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere.
What was your first job?
Office Clerk at Ciro Citterio Menswear's head quarters
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
An increase in contentious work as families and businesses restructure following global downturn in markets, and an increase in insolvency from the end of 2024
Bernadette Carey
Bernadette Carey
Partner | Carey Olsen
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Contentious
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
Cayman Islands
Short Biography
Bernadette is the head of Carey Olsen's Cayman Islands trusts and private wealth team. She has a broad private client practice advising on wealth structuring and estate planning matters including the creation of dynastic structures; the administration, restructuring, and termination of trusts; and probate and testamentary issues. She is also an experienced litigator in the private client space, regularly appearing before the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands on multi-party non-contentious applications and contentious trust disputes, as well as in respect of estate litigation and other cross-border private client disputes. Bernadette advises high net worth individuals, trustees, beneficiaries, family offices, executors, wealth managers, institutional clients, and onshore legal teams on all aspects of trusts and estates law in the Cayman Islands. She is a member of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, an International Fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel, and a STEP member.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?