Walkers (law firm)

Walkers is a Cayman Islands based offshore law firm. Although the firm now has offices in a number of jurisdictions, over half its staff remain based in the Cayman Islands. Walkers (law firm) set up a branch in 15/F, Alexandra House, Hong Kong. It is a member of the offshore magic circle.

Walkers' Cayman Islands office at 190 Elgin Avenue, Grand Cayman.

History

The firm was founded by Bill Walker (under the name W.S. Walker & Co.) shortly after Jamaican independence in 1962 (whereupon Cayman, which had previously been administered as part of Jamaica, was separated and remained as an independent part of the Commonwealth). Walkers is generally accepted as being the oldest Caymanian law firm, older than rivals Maples and Calder by about two years. It is a member of the offshore magic circle.

Walkers has been regarded as one of the Cayman Islands top two law firms since it was founded.

In 2008 Walkers was crowned Firm of the Year – Offshore Law Firm of the Year at the 2008 ALB Hong Kong Law Awards.[1]

Multi-jurisdictionalism

Walkers was an early participant in the trend towards multi jurisdictional offshore law firms, acquiring by merger British Virgin Islands law firm, Barkers, in 2001. It subsequently acquired Jersey law firm, Crills, in 2005. The firm also has further offices in Dubai, Dublin, London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bermuda. In July 2016[2] Walkers announced that they had acquired by merger the Guernsey law firm AO Hall. With the new Guernsey office Walkers has ten offices around the world.

The Chambers and Partners legal directory has rated Walkers as one of the top tier of multi-jurisdictional offshore law firms.[3]

In the Lawyer's 2015 Offshore Top 30 report of February 23, 2015, Joanne Harris pointed out that Walkers has now surpassed Maples and Calder as the largest offshore firm in Asia in terms of their number of lawyers.

Merger talks

In late 2007, discussions became public about a proposed merger between Walkers and Jersey-based Mourant du Feu & Jeune. Although mergers between offshore firms are relatively common, such a merger would be the first merger between two of the major global offshore players, creating by far the largest offshore law firm in the world.[4] However, in February 2008 the two firms announced that they were no longer pursuing merger talks.[5] Mourants subsequently merged with Guernsey firm, Ozannes, in 2010.

Sale of fiduciary business and establishment of new business

In March 2012 Walkers announced it was selling its fiduciary business, Walkers Management Services, to the Intertrust Group.[6] Like many offshore firms, Walkers business was previously divided between its legal practice and fiduciary services. Shortly afterwards, a large number of Walkers partners and senior associates defected to rival Caymanian law firm, Maples and Calder.[7] Although none of the defecting partners confirmed any link between the events, the timing naturally creates an inference that there may have been a connection.[8]

In May 2015 Walkers announced the establishment of a new fiduciary business called Walkers Professional Services with offices in the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and Dubai.

References
  1. "Asian Legal Business".
  2. "Walkers expands into Guernsey with AO Hall merger | Guernsey Finance". www.weareguernsey.com. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  3. "Global-wide – Offshore Lawyers & Law Firms – Global – Chambers and Partners".
  4. Official: Mourant and Walkers in merger talks
  5. Walkers and Mourant merger talks collapse
  6. "Walkers to focus solely on law after sale of fiduciary arm". 12 March 2012.
  7. "Ten-lawyer funds team defects from Walkers to Maples". 30 March 2012.
  8. "In a thinly veiled reference to the sale, Jon Fowler, global head of Investment Funds at Maples, noted the business model of Maples "avoids the dislocation of outsourcing entity formation and maintenance to a third party provider", adding that "this no doubt was a factor in [the Walkers’ funds lawyers’] respective decisions to join us"." "Lawyers leave Walkers for Maples". Cayman Compass. 3 April 2012.
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