Collas Crill has announced several promotions across its global dispute resolution teams; Ben Havard in Guernsey and Simon Hurry in Jersey have been promoted from senior associates to partners with Cayman-based Farrah Sbaiti promoted from associate to senior associate.
Rocco Cecere has also joined the Cayman team as of counsel.
The promotions come as the firm looks to capitalise on a strong period of growth within its litigation and dispute resolution practice.
The announcement also shows the business’ commitment to strengthening its legal areas of practice and supporting internal development.
Christian Hay, partner and head of the Guernsey dispute resolution practice, said: “Our Guernsey, Jersey, Cayman and BVI litigation teams have grown by at least 25 per cent in the last 12 months. While some firms are reporting dwindling levels of litigation, the lion's share of our growth over the last few years has been in litigation and dispute resolution.
“Increasingly, our litigation teams are working with institutional clients in both the non-contentious and semi-contentious advisory space – particularly in matters relating to insolvency, trusts and financial services regulation.
“We have acted for clients in all of the recent high profile matters that have come before the offshore courts, including Carlyle, Tchenguiz, Crociani, Ocean Rig, Platinum Partners, and Abraaj Holdings.
‘”These senior promotions in Guernsey, Jersey and Cayman, together with Rocco’s appointment and the recent recruitment of partner Gerard Clarke in BVI, evidence that litigation and dispute resolution remains very much one of our key strengths.”
Ben has a practice focussed on contentious and semi-contentious trust work. He is STEP qualified and a member of various peer-nominated industry bodies, including ACTAPS, ConTra, and the Chancery Bar Association.
His clients are major multi-national fiduciaries, and internationally based HNW and UHNW families. Ben's time is spent advising and representing in Court trustees, beneficiaries and protectors of Guernsey law Trusts on complex contentious situations, often with an international element.
In 2018 Ben was awarded Citywealth's IFC lawyer of the year award.
Since joining the firm in 2008, Simon has developed a practice focused on high-value commercial litigation, insolvency and contentious trust matters.
He is able to draw on multi-jurisdictional litigation and alternative dispute resolution experience having worked in the Cayman Islands' office for three years.
In 2015, he was awarded the Jersey Law Society's 'Junior Lawyer of the Year' and is ranked for dispute resolution in both Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500.
He is also a member of the Legal & Regulatory Committee of the Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Experts (ARIES).
Rocco specialises in international insolvency and restructuring, and investment fund disputes. He has extensive experience conducting complex cross-border litigation, often involving fraud and asset tracing.
He has acted in some of the largest and most significant litigation in the Cayman Islands in recent years, including a series of groundbreaking representative proceedings up to the Privy Council, which established important law in respect of the priorities of claims, and the proper distribution methodology, in Cayman liquidations.
Rocco is recognised as a leading practitioner in s.238 ‘fair value’ petitions, and has appeared in numerous leading cases in the area.
He has been recommended by Legal 500 and was named as a ‘Next Generation Lawyer’ in 2018 and 2019. He is also a member of the Cayman Islands Law Society, RISA Cayman and INSOL International.
Farrah qualified as a Barrister in 2009 and worked at a top 20 Law firm in England, during this time she also qualified as a solicitor-advocate.
She was admitted to the Cayman Islands’ Bar in January 2016 and worked for another Cayman Islands law firm for more than 2 years, before joining Collas Crill’s Cayman office in August 2018.
Farrah has extensive experience in appearing at Court on a broad range of commercial/corporate litigation and insolvency-related matters.
