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Law
Outsourcing provision: Emma Azopardi, Ramparts Law
in Gibraltar and specialist in eGaming and eCommerce, was poached last year from Go- compare, the comparison website where he had set up a in-house legal team in Cardiff. “We are very different to other local firms: the company is very international, and we have expanded from abroad with a team hav- ing worked both in private practice and - unusually for law firms - also from various in-house roles, which gives us people with direct experience of the corporate field.
“Very few of our clients confine their business to Gibraltar and all are cross-border, so we aim to have offices wherever we can serve them better,” he reveals.
Emma Azopardi specialises in private client and family office business and joined Ramparts a year ago from Hassans where she worked for a decade (the last two years as a partner) and where her father is a senior partner. High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) relocating, maybe establishing a business in Gibraltar, or as part of an international business with a Gibraltar presence, are
proving lucrative.
Fees pressure
“There is a general downward pressure on fees, but we don’t seem to be feeling that; we’d rather be more competitive on fees and work in partnership with our clients. Often we provide an outsourcing facility for companies that also might be considering establishing an in-house legal team”, she explains.
Triay also believes Gibraltar is becoming the jurisdiction of choice for HNWIs. “Some choose Gibraltar for tax reasons, others because of the intrusive impact that measures like FATCA and CRS have in their home state; so good things also come out of the new measures!”
He’s adamant. “Gibraltar needs to develop itself as centre of excellence in another field; we have done this in the gaming world, we are also achieving international recognition in the insurance field, and we now need to concentrate on a new field. Whether this is arbitration or another form of dispute resolution is something that only time will tell.”
Killick maintains: “A significant amount of our business is international and emanates from elsewhere by recommendation. The best way to develop
legal business is by leveraging individual contacts in other jurisdictions and speaking at conferences, for example.”
But as he points out: “We have to be responsive to the needs of clients in the Gibraltar financial services centre and development of the commercial areas. We are seeing potential for growth in the Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) space, as well as a busy pipeline of work in respect of listings on the Gibraltar Stock Exchange.”
Planning for change
ISOLAS, Gibraltar’s oldest law firm dating from 1892 and now with 25 lawyers , also is driving the agenda in development of a crowdfunding solution for Gibraltar. Killick says: “Fintech in general, represents a significant opportunity.
“What would be bad for Gibraltar, would be having firms in these and other new areas wanting to come here, but not having appropriate or knowledgeable
professional services available. As law firms, we therefore have to anticipate and plan for these,” he warns.
Hassans last year recruited from top tier UK law firms, including lawyers and consultants from Linklaters and accountants, PWC, and Javier Chincotta, Managing Partner, explains: “We endeavour to recruit home grown talent where possible, and we have plenty of it, but equally, when we do need to extend our recruitment overseas, for a specialist in a particular area of work or industry, we are fortunate in that Hassans and Gibraltar itself aren’t difficult ‘sells’ to potential recruits.”
As an example, Mark Okes-Voysey, an ex-PwC partner based in Europe, was recruited to provide international business con- sultancy services to both the firm and its clients and from April he took over as chief executive of Hassans’ fiduciary arm, Line Group.
Gibraltar’s Financial Services Commission has spent a year trying to recruit locally without success for its new Director of Legal, Enforcement and Policy, but has just appointed an experienced regulatory lawyer, Peter Taylor, who moves in July from Director of Access to Legislation at New Zealand’s Parliamentary Counsel Office and Chief Legal Advisor to
the New Zealand Customs Service. Another development in the jurisdic- tion’s quest to be seen as a centre of excellence is provision of statutory regulation of the legal sector, something that many regard as long overdue. The Bar Council has worked on the framework for over six years and in 2012 its 170 individual members agreed to a potential fee rise from £50-£70 to £1,000-£1,500 a year to meet the
regulatory cost. Lawyers from abroad – mostly QCs
from the UK – as well as some 25-30 of those who arrive to appear in cases each year would also need first to register with the Bar Council. As Azopardi asserts: “I am in favour of people coming in and pitting their wits against local advocates, but there are areas where it is being done too frequently – and in my opinion, unnecessarily.”
Regulation in prospect
Minister Licudi, who is considering the Bar Council’s proposals, says he is “close to broad agreement with the profession.” Azopardi hopes for legislation before the year-end and sees it being made compulsory for all lawyers to become Bar members, swelling membership to around 300.
However, Licudi cautions that that particular aspect is still subject to negotiation, but emphasises: “All lawyers [including those working in-house or for government] need to be regulated and,
therefore, will need to be regis- tered with the statutory body and have a practicing certificate. The Bar Council represents the lawyers, but the independent statutory body is the regulator, much as, for example, there is a Bankers’ Association and a separate Financial Services Regulator. We are not talking about self regulation.”
Nor has it been decided whether the planned Legal Services Act will include a consumer compensation fund, with Azopardi arguing instead that “it is more equitable and less costly for lawyers to review the level of their Professional Indemnity cover to reflect the scale of activity and the risk level based on
the type of cases handled”. Killick, who until 2014 was Gibraltar’s
financial services regulator and previously
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Transparency has lessened litigation: Melo Triay of Triay & Triay
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