Maples Group European Expansion Continues With the Growth of Its London Office

London Law Firm Developments

Through the Group’s law firm, Maples and Calder, it provides full service legal advice from London on the laws of the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Ireland and Jersey.  With the ever-increasing demand for time-sensitive, multilingual and jurisdiction-specific legal advice, the firm has continued to seek out the best talent in the city and invest in key personnel to join its growing network.

The firm recently hired six new Associates across its Funds & Investment Management and Finance practices in London, with the new lawyers practising British Virgin Islands (“BVI”) and Cayman Islands law.  Of course, the Group does not have to look very far when it comes to recruiting top talent and consistently offers career-progressing opportunities to its lawyers and professionals within its global network.  In addition to the six new recruits, and among the recent transfers to the London office, is Dispute Resolution & Insolvency Of Counsel, Christian La-Roda Thomas, who relocated from the Group’s Cayman Islands office to provide on the ground support in London.  Other notable moves include Christian Firth, an Associate previously based in Dublin who has relocated to London to join the firm’s expanding Irish practice.

In the current market, the firm has been busy supporting clients as they examine how best to navigate the current market conditions.  In particular, the firm’s Funds & Investment Management and Finance practices have experienced significant growth as clients rely on the Group’s industry leading experts for advice and support.  Having been promoted to head of the London Funds & Investment Management team last year, Partner Harjit Kaur has been instrumental in shaping and developing the practice, ensuring that the team is fully equipped to navigate the regulatory changes and challenges the industry faces.  Notably, her specialist expertise was recently commended in the 50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds Report, a global report that highlights women in leadership in the hedge funds industry.  The Group’s London Funds & Investment Management team remains the largest UK-based offshore funds group in London and the recent additions to the team further consolidate the firm’s market leading position.

The London Finance practice led by Partner Jonathan Caulton acts for almost all of the major financial institutions in all types of BVI, Cayman Islands and Jersey finance, structured finance and capital market transactions, including asset and project finance, real estate finance, fund finance, listings, securitisations, repackagings and derivatives transactions.

The new joiners to the London law firm include:

• Oliver Quarmby, Associate, Funds & Investment Management (Cayman Islands practice)
• Jessica Jiang, Associate, Funds & Investment Management (Cayman Islands practice)
• Sophie Whitcombe, Associate, Funds & Investment Management (Cayman Islands practice)
• Heather Murray, Associate, Funds & Investment Management (BVI and Cayman Islands practices)
• Sam Burford-Yeo, Associate, Funds & Investment Management (Cayman Islands practice)
• Ana Lazgare, Associate, Finance (BVI and Cayman Islands practices)

Commenting on the recent appointments and London’s growing importance to the Maples Group’s global network, Heidi de Vries, London office Managing Partner of the Group’s law firm said, “With the current uncertain geopolitical environment, today’s announcement reaffirms the Maples Group’s commitment to growing its business here in London.  The continued growth of our European offices over the past few years is the result of our long-term international investment strategy, established to better serve our clients.  Our London lawyers and professionals are currently busy supporting clients who are navigating the current market challenges and our comprehensive service offering here in London enables us to provide a seamless end-to-end service to clients.”

In addition to the developments in the Group’s law firm in London, it has also strengthened its fund and fiduciary service capabilities and continues to experience increasing demand for its services in London and throughout Europe.

Growth of London Fiduciary Team

The Group’s fiduciary business in London, led by Senior Vice President, Sam Ellis, has grown considerably in size since it launched its London offering in 2016, having recruited an additional seven experienced professionals to support servicing clients.  The team continues to focus on providing corporate and fiduciary services to UK companies, limited liability partnerships and structured finance vehicles, as well as providing UK facilities agent services to Irish and Luxembourg UCITS.  In addition, as the investment fund world becomes more complex and the regulatory landscape presents an ever more challenging environment, there has been strong investor-driven demand for the highest standards of governance.  The Group’s fiduciary services team provides independent directors, with expertise across sectors and strategies, to both alternative investment funds and underlying portfolio companies, including those from many of the world’s most prestigious investment managers, overseeing the actions of the manager and those of the service providers to provide the requisite guidance and support.  Its specialist structured finance team has decades of experience in providing corporate services to UK securitisation vehicles, asset financing SPVs and bespoke financing entities, benefiting from its extensive global footprint.  The Group’s responsive and hands-on approach to both governance and corporate services has proven particularly valuable to clients in the current market as they face disruptions and challenges from COVID-19.

London Fund Services Team Update

Appointed in 2019 as Director of Business Development for the fund services team in Europe, Edwin Parker has bolstered the team’s expertise and expansion across Europe.  Increasing consolidation and instability across the fund administration market has enabled the Group’s funds services team to solidify its position as a trusted and stable service provider with more than US$100 billion in assets under administration.  Further underscoring this is a commitment to acting as a true extension of a fund manager’s day-to-day operations, providing a high-quality service that can be customised to address their specific needs.  This approach is backed by a robust technological infrastructure that delivers an optimal balance of best-of-breed core systems and bespoke proprietary solutions that enable the business to be dynamic in responding to clients’ needs as they evolve.  The business is further supported by MPMF Fund Management (Ireland) Limited, the Group’s Central Bank of Ireland authorised AIFM and UCITS management company, which provides solutions to support EU marketed funds to comply with new and extensive authorisation and ongoing operational and transparency requirements.

“With a global network that spans the world’s major international financial centres, the Maples Group provides a comprehensive suite of fiduciary and fund services that is tailored to meet clients’ complex and multi-jurisdictional needs,” said Scott Somerville, CEO of the fiduciary, fund, entity formation and management and regulatory services businesses of the Maples Group. “Given the current market environment, efficiency has become more important than ever and we are proud of our ability to deliver client-focused and service-driven solutions that drive results and afford clients a level of assurance that the various matters we support are effectively addressed and work is executed to the highest standards. As a result of this approach, we continue to see a significant demand for our services in London as well as across all of our global locations.”