As law firms in the Cayman Islands fight for market share, the latest firm to ramp up its corporate and investment funds practices at the expense of a competitor is Mourant Ozannes.
Jennifer Parsons joins Mourant as counsel from Ogier, where she was a managing associate. Parsons advises clients on fund formation, regulatory compliance, and corporate governance, and she also has some experience with mergers and acquisitions. Before moving to the Cayman Islands in 2008, Parsons worked as an associate at Cox & Palmer in Nova Scotia.
"Jennifer is well regarded within Cayman, and within the funds industry in the US and Canada," said Hayden Isbister, a partner in the Grand Cayman office. "In the short time she’s been here, she’s already been supervising a lot of associates, working with key clients and laying the ground work to develop her practice at the firm. She not only does hedge fund and private equity fund work, but also general corporate and commercial work, and she has regulatory expertise – for example, in relation to the Securities and Investment Business Law, and issues related to corporate governance."
Parsons’s move is the latest in a series of high-level departures that have depleted Ogier’s funds and corporate bench in the Cayman Islands. In January 2015, Peter Cockhill, who had practiced law at Ogier for 17 years, left the firm to become an independent legal consultant. In December 2013, Ogier lost Susan Lock and Richard Spencer to Campbells. In May 2013, Colin Berryman and Andrew Morehouse left Ogier for Harneys. Julie O’Hara departed in December 2012 to become a director of Carne Global. In November 2010, James Bergstrom relocated from Ogier’s Cayman outpost to become the firm’s Hong Kong managing partner.
Parsons holds an LL.B. from Dalhousie University and a bachelor’s degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland.