MONTHLY PROFILE OF A LAW FIRM’S LEASING
DEPARTMENT
Firm name: Walkers
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Head of department: Anne Todd
No of full-time AF partners: 12
Offices: Cayman Islands, British Virgin
Islands, Hong Kong, London, Dubai
AF sectors: Corporate jets, commercial aircraft, ships, yachts,
equipment, oil rigs For 40 years offshore law firms, such as
Walkers, have been transacting asset finance deals. It has been a
lucrative business, and looks set to continue to be so with rules
still in place that allow parties to offshore leasing deals not to
have to pay tax on income streams. Walkers, which has been one of
the longer serving specialists in this field, has particularly
profited from this trade, and regards asset finance as one of its
key practice areas.
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By GlobalDataDue to the complexity of offshore structures only the more
complex asset finance deal is put together by Walkers and the
myriad of other law firms that dot parts of the Caribbean and the
Channel Islands. Walkers recently set up a Jersey office through
its merger with local firm, Crills Advocates, and Heather Bestwick,
formerly a Caymans-based Walkers partner, recently moved to Jersey
to help set up an expanded asset finance department
post-merger.
However, while Walkers would only consider putting together
deals that are large-scale, it equally does not shy away from
getting involved in smaller assets. In fact, Anne Todd, heads of
the firm’s leasing department, says her team, particularly in the
Cayman Islands, has seen a large increase recently in the number of
yacht and corporate jet leasing deals. “Most corporate jet
registrations are now being done offshore,” says Todd, who adds her
firm’s services include registering aircraft and jet mortgages. She
describes there as being a “steady flow” of ship and yacht
registrations, too.
For the offshore world, then, the credit crunch appears to be
passing by largely unnoticed, although, Todd claims, she is seeing
an increase in business sourced from the Middle East and Asia as
European and US banks become lend willing to lend. A backlog of
aircraft orders, particularly from Airbus and Boeing, could also
give rise to a flurry of additional business for Walkers.
While the bulk of such deals would be transacted through the
firm’s Cayman Island office, the firm’s asset finance capability is
growing across all its centres of operations. However, before a
Walkers lawyer can think about working for any of the firm’s
satellite offices he needs to have spent time in the Caymans.
But even to get a foot through the front door Walkers requires
having already cut one’s teeth in a top City firm in Europe or the
US. Todd herself worked at Denton Wilde Sapte, Clifford Chance,
aircraft manufacturer ATR Regional Aircraft (on secondment), and
Caymans firm Maples and Calder before finally arriving at
Walkers.
Walkers, it appears, enjoys its sense of exclusivity, but with
increasing numbers of smaller deals being shunted offshore,
combined with a clamp-down on the tax benefits of leasing in
Europe, Walkers may well soon appear on the radar of more
independent lessors, and not just the banks.
