Christian is among the leading commercial litigators at the Guernsey Bar with a particular expertise in contentious trust related matters and corporate disputes. He leads a team of talented lawyers across Guernsey, Jersey and Cayman with strong expertise in contentious and non-contentious trust and estate matters.
Christian is a CEDR-accredited mediator and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He regularly acts as mediator or arbitrator in trust, financial services and commercial disputes in Guernsey and Jersey.
Experience
If there is a high-value dispute between trustees and beneficiaries; between bank and customer/ investor; between commercial entities; between majority/ minority shareholders; against directors; or within a contentious liquidation, Christian is likely to be acting for one of the parties.
Christian is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, which is the the world’s leading qualifications and professional body for dispute avoidance and dispute management. This is the highest membership level and requires a minimum of ten years’ experience in arbitration, and first-hand involvement in settlement agreements, the management of proceedings and attending hearings that have resulted in the publication of a reasoned award or decision.
Background
Christian joined Collas Crill in 2003. In 2006, he qualified as a Guernsey Advocate, and became a Partner of the firm and head of the firm's then dispute resolution team in 2007.
Prior to joining Collas Crill, Christian was an Associate within the disputes team at White & Case (London) working on international arbitrations concerning projects and contracts in far-flung places such as Lesotho, Kuwait, and Peru; and before that he trained and qualified at Masons (now Pinsent Masons).
Christian is a member of the Guernsey Yacht Club, and the Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club. He enjoys boating, skiing and walking (the dog).
Awards/ directories
eprivateclient - Top 50 Most Influential List 2025
STEP Worldwide Excellence Award - 2018 and 2019
Citywealth - Leaders List
Legal 500 - Hall of Fame
Chambers & Partners - Leading Individual
Recognised as one of the world's leading practitioners in the Lexology Index: Comercial Litigation, Private Client and Offshore Services and Asset Recovery 2025.
Memberships
ACTAPS (Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists)
IBA (International Bar Association)
"I pride myself on giving my clients sound, commercial and, above all, practical advice. When it comes to the crunch I put my client's best foot forward and get the job done."
Christian is a tireless advocate for the interests of Collas Crill and Guernsey dispute resolution in general.
Legal 500 2022
My experience of working with Christian Hay and the team at Collas Crill has been very positive. They are responsive and practical in the advice they provide.
Legal 500 (UK) 2026
Christian Hay is very easy to deal with. He is responsive and his advice is clear and practical.
Legal 500 (UK) 2026
Very sensible, capable and efficient.
Chambers & Partners
Christian ensures effective delivery of the firm's services.
Chambers UK 2023
A class act who has terrific judgment.
Chambers & Partners
Christian very quickly understood the issues that I had been dealing with in Switzerland, the UK and elsewhere, including West Africa. He has been incredibly supportive and a pleasure to deal with on all fronts.
Legal 500 2024 (UK)
Christian is good with clients and ensures consistency of service quality.
Legal 500
Hard working, tactically shrewd and good on his feet in Court.
Chambers & Partners
A pleasure to work with because he is an expert in his field, dedicated to his clients but prepared to work as part of a wider team.
A smooth operator and an excellent advocate.
When the going gets tough his resolute expertise is there for all to see.
Chambers & Partners
An extremely accomplished advocate.
Legal 500
Expertise
Arbitration is increasingly being used as a cost-effective, confidential and efficient alternative to court litigation for solving commercial, construction and more frequently trust disputes. The global enforceability of arbitral awards and the successful adoption of virtual technology by most arbitration institutions makes it an attractive option for resolving disputes.
Our dedicated arbitration lawyers bring deep, cross-border experience in both international arbitration and mediation, combining strategic judgment with practical commercial awareness to work alongside and quickly determine the best approach for a successful conclusion. They are skilled at:
Assessing forum suitability
Managing complex stakeholder relationships
Shaping dispute resolution strategies that reflect clients’ broader business objectives
With offices in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Jersey and London as well as a strong track record across a wide range of sectors, our arbitration lawyers can advise you on every aspect of international arbitration, adapting their approach to each dispute while offering clear, commercially rooted guidance aimed at achieving durable, cost-effective outcomes.
We represent beneficiaries, high-net-worth individuals, trustees, protectors and other power holders in a range of contentious and semi-contentious situations. Our lawyers have been at the forefront of the most complex, high-value private wealth litigation offshore.
We often deal with novel points of law, creating new and innovative solutions to meet the needs of our clients.
Given the international nature of private wealth, with clients and their assets spread across the world, we work as a joined-up global team so that our clients can benefit from the knowledge and experience wherever they may need it.
With offices in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey, our contentious private wealth lawyers combine courtroom skill with discreet client care, advising on jurisdictional strategy, interim relief and complex equitable claims.
Our dispute resolution specialists collaborate seamlessly with our corporate advisory and banking teams across jurisdictions to advise multinational corporations, trust companies, banks, funds, insurers, governments and directors.
We provide a global perspective, working closely with our clients to ensure that they are best placed to respond to customer issues, fraud risks, rapidly changing market conditions and regulatory demands.
Thanks to the depth of our experience and the resources of our team, we've acted on some of the largest pieces of litigation brought against directors offshore.
We're well placed to deal with the 'bet the farm' proceedings that can occur in these type of disputes and have represented parties involved in intra-company disputes, including executive, non-executive and independent directors, majority and minority shareholders, companies and liquidators. We understand that shareholder disputes are often not black and white and our team finds innovative and commercial alternatives to those which the Court may offer – taking a collaborative approach with our clients to ensure that the right result is achieved.
For financially distressed companies in need of restructuring and reorganisation, or for those where the opportunity to do so has passed or failed, we work to achieve the most beneficial outcome in these difficult situations.
At whatever stage we are engaged, our involvement will assist in identifying the ongoing risks facing a client and to enable that client to continue to identify and effectively manage deteriorating relationships with creditors, financiers, investors or other interested parties.
When customers or clients do not pay on time, we provide timely and effective advice on recovering debts and enforcing judgments. We help businesses, service providers, lenders and borrowers – including banks, funds, directors, and insolvency practitioners – recover commercial debt swiftly and strategically.
Our services cover court proceedings, arrets, saisies, statutory demands, insolvency proceedings, désastre, realisation, dégrèvement, and enforcement of security interests. We conduct thorough security reviews and advise on pre-emptive measures, ensuring prompt, decisive action with discretion to minimise reputational risk.
It is important for businesses to understand what constitutes a dominant market position in order to avoid becoming involved in anti-competitive practices, especially during mergers and acquisitions. Penalties can be significant and directors may be disqualified, or worse. In addition to regularly gaining merger approvals, our commercial team also advises a number of major businesses on the practical effect of the competition regimes on their businesses.
Developments, consolidations and regulation mean that effective risk management and mitigation has never been more important. Our advice is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution, but rather based on an individual company’s specific business model. By building a partnership with you we can provide trustees with a range of regulatory advice, administration support, products and services within a dedicated team approach, precedent development and on-going education and industry updates.
Together with our multi-disciplinary risk and regulatory team, we advise on anti-money laundering laws and the regulation of trust companies and can assist in the creation and improvement of straightforward operating procedures, including checklists, designed in conjunction with the needs of a trustee to ensure that all members of staff, no matter what their experience, can provide consistent and accurate back office services.
Changes of trustee documents (DORA or IORAs) usually contain indemnities from the incoming trustee to the outgoing trustee which are often hotly negotiated and can be complex. A change of trustee also presents a good opportunity for the incoming trustee to undertake a due diligence exercise by reviewing the trust documents, ensuring that the previous chain of trusteeship is intact and ensuring that the outgoing trustee ratifies or rectifies any flaws in the trust or the trust documents before the trusteeship is handed over. We have considerable experience in narrowing the issues in these negotiations. We are also well versed in assisting our trustee clients in mitigating risk by spotting (sometimes very significant flaws) in trusts before they are taken on and by ratifying previous discrepancies in a commercial manner – commonly without necessitating the involvement of the court.
We provide fast, cost-effective and sensitive advice on all types of will-related disputes during what is often an extremely upsetting and distressing time for those concerned. We regularly act on multi-party actions for both plaintiffs and defendants.
The role of a modern trustee has never been more complex. Trustees must satisfy the needs and desires of their beneficiaries, manage complex assets and navigate an ever-changing legal and regulatory landscape.
We know that trustees can need assistance and advice on how best to satisfy their duties and to meet their legal and regulatory obligations. We understand and have a great deal of experience in working with trustees to get ahead of any potentially difficult situation and resolve it in a way that minimises risk and conflict.
As the global legal and regulatory landscape becomes ever more complex, managing wealth across generations, succession planning and transferring control of assets has never been more challenging. That's why it's important to work with lawyers who can offer solutions that are tailored to your unique circumstances.
We live in an increasingly contentious world. When your business is involved in any kind of legal dispute it's crucial to work with lawyers who are hands-on, cost-effective and flexible enough to respond quickly and intuitively to your unique situation and needs.
We are used to working as part of a multi-jurisdictional team, capable of reacting and responding quickly to urgent requests for assistance with locating and freezing assets.
As sophisticated defendants become more adept at dissipating assets, we've been involved in cases that created new law in the Channel Islands in relation to a party's ability to trace assets and recover their losses. With their ability to deal with complex issues, the team deliver clear, commercial advice on the availability and likely success of recovery methods.
With specialists across not only Guernsey and Jersey but also in the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, services provided by our fraud and asset tracing lawyers include:
Immediate applications for freezing and search orders
Expedited Norwich Pharmacal order and disclosure proceedings
Asset-tracing across trust structures and corporate vehicles
Coordination with criminal and regulatory investigations where overlap exists.
Our international footprint lets us deliver prompt, all‑round legal support precisely when clients need it most.
