Juliana Wood 

Successfully navigating the modern global business environment, taking advantage of opportunities as they arise while avoiding legal and regulatory pitfalls, is a challenge for any entrepreneur, business or corporation.

As commercially minded lawyers committed to providing a high quality and cost-effective service we understand those challenges and, more importantly, seek to turn them into opportunities.

Our fund specialists offer advice on all aspects relating to the establishment, authorisation and structuring of funds and related investment vehicles. We have particular expertise acting for emerging managers who are building their business and acting for institutional investors, including acting for private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds on joint venture and fund investments, as well as planning their internal corporate structures. We provide a highly personalised service working with our clients and their onshore counsel to build strong relationships over the long term.

Our uniquely diverse practice regularly assists with the establishment of both open and closed-ended fund structures. In addition to traditional Channel Island private equity and real estate structures and Caribbean hedge funds, we have advised on a number of alternative and esoteric classes. We work alongside our clients to understand their investment thesis and provide bespoke drafting to build the fund they want as opposed to generic template structures and documentation. We advise clients at every step of the process, including preparing offer documents, investor negotiations, the preparation of agreements, and in the closing of transactions.

Regulation and legal risk management are placing increasing burdens on companies and businesses in terms of time, costs and resources, and the consequences of getting this wrong can be severe. We can assist with all regulatory and compliance issues in Jersey, Guernsey, BVI and Cayman.

Additionally we can help with regulator investigations and visits, enforcement and remediation including representation before regulators, tribunals committees and courts. We have an excellent record in defending corporates and their directors and officers in regulatory proceedings.

Offshore vehicles are used for a huge range of purposes either standing alone or as part of large multi-jurisdictional structures.

Our highly commercial team specialises in advising clients on the most effective uses of such vehicles and their ongoing operation, including normal and cellular companies as well as foundations, unit trusts, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, segregated portfolio and restricted purpose companies.  

We are able to advise what jurisdiction among the "Big Four" that we advise on will best suit our client's needs and regularly advise on solvent restructuring by way of merger, consolidation, continuation or balance sheet optimisation as well as court based corporate procedures such as schemes and plans of arrangement.

With our mix of non-contentious and litigation restructuring specialists, Collas Crill offers the unique advantage of having being able to provide a team to seamlessly take a transaction from start to finish. 

Good corporate governance and a sound understanding of directors duties is critical. Regardless of size, establishing a best practice approach should be fundamental to all boards.

The board of directors are responsible for ensuring the company achieves its objectives and the corporate governance framework they adhere to should underpin their accountability to the company and its members. We advise company boards at all stages in the corporate lifecycle, in solvent and insolvent scenarios.

We have also acted on some of the largest pieces of litigation brought against directors offshore.