Offshore firm Mourant Ozannes recently opened a Hong Kong office, its first in Asia, to capitalise on the region’s growth opportunities and facilitate clients’ needs for offshore legal advisory.This is the firm’s fifth branch, alongside its existing outposts in the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Jersey and London.

The Jersey-headquartered firm’s Hong Kong office advises on legal matters ranging from investment funds, global trusts, public listings and corporate to banking and finance and restructurings.

The new branch is manned by managing partner Paul Christopher, and partners Alex Last and Simon Lawrenson.

Christopher focuses on corporate, investment fund and finance matters, while Last heads the firm’s Cayman practice in Asia.

Last is well-versed in investment funds, and was formerly with the London office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and with Maples and Calder’s Hong Kong and Dubai branches. Lawrenson, meanwhile, heads the firm’s British Virgin Islands practice in Asia, and his core practices are corporate and finance. Before joining Mourant Ozannes, he worked at the London office of Linklaters, and the Maples and Calder BVI office.

Jonathan Rigby, managing partner of the firm, said: "Many of our clients, as well as the international law firms with whom we work so closely, are based in Asia or now have significant operations in the region. Establishing an office in Hong Kong, the region's leading international finance centre, was an obvious strategic move for Mourant Ozannes.”

The year 2011 saw the firm acting on the world’s largest IPO when global commodities trading giant Glencore International engaged Mourant Ozannes as its offshore counsel in its dual listings at the Hong Kong and London bourses for $11 billion. ALB

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