Walkers (law firm)

Walkers is a Cayman Islands head quartered offshore law firm.  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.

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 2006 Walkers was named Offshore Law Firm of the Year by The Lawyer.

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

In 2017 Walkers was awarded the Who's Who Legal – Best Law Firm, Cayman Islands prize, the IFLR – Best Offshore Law Firm Asia prize and the Best Offshore Law Firm Award for Client Service at the HFM Week US Hedge Fund Services Awards.

In 2018 Who's Who Legal awarded Walkers the Asset Recovery Firm of the Year award.

In 2019 Global Restructuring Review named Walkers' Global Insolvency & Dispute Resolution Group the 12th strongest global law firm for restructuring and insolvency law making Walkers the highest ranked offshore law firm on the list.

In 2020 Chambers and Partners honoured Walkers with the Asia-Pacific Offshore Firm of the Year award.

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 2020 Chambers and Partners Global Guide Walkers maintained its stance as the go-to offshore law firm, leading the way with 10 "Band 1" practice area rankings and an overall Band 1 ranking in 'Global Offshore'. Walkers is ranked in the highest tier (Band 1) for "Offshore Law" with a total of 23 practice groups and 64 lawyers ranked for legal excellence.

Walkers also retained its top tier ranking for 'Offshore' legal services in the 2020 Chambers and Partners Asia-Pacific guide and received a jurisdiction-leading nine lawyer rankings, four more rankings than the next Asia-based offshore law firm.

In the 2019 Chambers and Partners Global Guide, Walkers' practice groups received the highest number of rankings for an offshore law firm. Walkers is one of three international law firms ranked in the highest tier (Band 1) for offshore law with a total of 21 practice groups ranked for legal excellence.

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 (WPS). WPS now 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.

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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