Walkers (law firm)

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

Walkers is an offshore law firm headquartered on the Cayman Islands. Walkers provides legal, corporate, compliance and fiduciary services to global corporations, financial institutions, capital markets participants and investment fund managers. Walkers practices the laws of six jurisdictions (Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Jersey and Ireland) from ten offices globally. It is a member of the offshore magic circle.

History

The firm was founded by Bill Walker (under the name W.S. Walker & Co.) shortly after Jamaican independence in 1962. Walkers is generally accepted as being the oldest Caymanian law firm, older than rivals Maples and Calder by about two years.

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.^[1] However, in February 2008 the two firms announced that they were no longer pursuing merger talks.^[2] 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.^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5]

In May 2015, Walkers announced the establishment of a new fiduciary business called Walkers Professional Services (WPS).

Firm structure

Walkers is headquartered in the Cayman Islands and has further offices in Dubai, Dublin, London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bermuda.

In July 2016, Walkers announced that they had acquired by merger the Guernsey law firm AO Hall. With the new Guernsey office, Walkers increased to having ten offices around the world.

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.

Walkers Professional Services (WPS)

Established as separate fiduciary business, WPS has a staff of over 120 providing corporate, corporate governance, regulatory and compliance and fiduciary services from Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Dubai/ADGM, Hong Kong and Ireland to corporate and institutional clients across global financial centres.

Recognition

• In 2008, Walkers was crowned Firm of the Year – Offshore Law Firm of the Year at the 2008 ALB Hong Kong Law Awards.^[6]
• The Chambers and Partners legal directory has rated Walkers as one of the top tier of multi-jurisdictional offshore law firms.^[7]

References

1. Official: Mourant and Walkers in merger talks
2. Walkers and Mourant merger talks collapse
3. "Walkers to focus solely on law after sale of fiduciary arm". 12 March 2012.
4. "Ten-lawyer funds team defects from Walkers to Maples". 30 March 2012.
5. "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. 4 April 2012.
6. "Asian Legal Business".
7. "Global-wide – Offshore Lawyers & Law Firms – Global – Chambers and Partners".

External links

• Official website
• Chambers and Partners Offshore Ranking
• Walkers of George Town, Grand Cayman (2001). "Cayman Islands Law Digest". Martindale Hubbell International Law Digest, Argentina-Venezuela Law Digests; Selected International Conventions (133rd year ed.). New Providence, NJ and London, England: Reed Elsevier Inc. ISBN 1-56160-442-9. Retrieved 16 December 2020 – via Internet Archive.