News Updates!

• Study Shows Hedge Funds Outperforms equities, bonds and commodities

• Cayman and SEC sign MOU
• Solomon Harris Expands Practice
• Download presentation for "Directors' Fiduciary Duties after the Weavering Decision" webinar. Click here
• Solomon Harris Announces New Partnership Appointments
• Cayman Regulator Launches CIMAConnect for Financial E-Business
• Cayman is No. 1 Specialised Financial Centre- Bankers IFC Ranking
• Premier's Statement on EU Directive.
• Funds Set for Rebound- Cayman Still Leads the Way!
• Strong Outlook for Captives and Funds
• Cayman Islands on OECD Global Forum Steering Group.
• Moody's maintains its stable outlook on the Cayman Islands. Click here.
• The Leader of Government Business' statements on Cayman Islands Government Finances

 

• Total partners: 6
• Total lawyers: 14
• Managing partners: 1
• Press contact: Helen Chisholm
• Languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Russian

Solomon Harris is a full service corporate/commercial law firm specialising in international offshore work with recognised expertise in a number of niche areas, including investment funds, captive insurance, capital markets and corporate restructuring/insolvency. The firm has developed a reputation as one of Cayman's top tier firms for providing effective offshore legal solutions, both promptly and efficiently. The firm continues to be recognised as a top ranking Cayman firm by the leading UK international law firm directories, such as Chambers Global and Legal 500 and is perceived in the market as a more “nimble” alternative to its larger competitors with a complement of very experienced lawyers across all work groups.

Solomon Harris' reputation has been built on its consistent responsiveness to client needs and its straightforward, commercially focused advice. The firm's clients include major financial institutions, public and private companies, high net worth individuals, major onshore law firms and accounting firms, including a number of well-recognised names such as Société Générale, Unibanco, Banco Itau, Harcourt and PricewaterhouseCoopers. In addition to providing services directly to clients, the firm has also assisted clients by providing management of legal counsel in other Caribbean jurisdictions.
One commentator makes the following observation about the firm, “Peers compliment the firm’s ability to excel in more complex deals, and the team is certainly moving in the right direction”.

Although the Firm is structured in departments (Corporate/Commercial; Dispute Resolution, Insolvency and Corporate Recovery; and Local Practice/Banking), the boundaries between the departments are very fluid and frequently work is handled on a cross-departmental basis. 

The firm's main practice areas, in alphabetical order, are: Capital Markets; Company and Partnership Formation; Corporate Recovery/Insolvency; Dispute Resolution; Employee Benefits; Finance; Insurance; Investment Funds and Private Equity Funds; Listing Services, Local Commercial, Banking and Licensing; Mergers, Acquisitions and Joint Ventures; Private Client (trusts, wills, probate, estate matters); Real Estate/Property Law. 

The Firm has offices in the Cayman Islands and Zurich, Switzerland.

Starting a Cayman Hedge Fund

The latest statistics now show that there are 9,900 Cayman mutual funds as of March 2012 as opposed to 9,261 funds at the same time last year. These numbers for Q1 2012 are the highest ever since 2008 (in the Q3 for 2008 the numbers stood at a high of 10,291 and dropped to 9,870 at the end of that year). The statistics for funds in 2011 stood at 9,258 funds. If one drills down as to how and why the numbers are still so strong, there seems to be a number of factors. The Financial Times reported in March 2012 that hedge funds are now poised to report some of their strongest three month gains in a decade. It reports that according to Hedge Fund Research, the average fund is up more than 5% for the year so far and performance for some big-name managers, have been even better! A 2012 study by the Centre for Hedge Fund Research at the Imperical College in London states that Hedge Funds have significantly outperformed traditional asset classes such as equities, bonds and commodities during the last 17 years. Portfolios that included hedge funds outperformed a conventional portfolio that invested 60 percent in stocks and 40 per cent in bonds.

As a result Cayman continues to reap the benefits of being one of the few offshore jurisdictions with the necessary infrastructure to ensure that establishing a hedge fund is a simple and straight forward matter with effective but not unduly burdensome legislation. The announcement in November last year from the supranational body, the Financial Stability Board (which includes the OECD) that Cayman has ‘sufficiently strong’ regulatory and supervisory standards in cooperating and information exchange on the global stage, speaks to the effectiveness of its overall legislation. The Banker’s latest survey crowned Cayman with the number one spot for a third year running as the leading specialist finance centre. This speaks to not only the effectiveness of the Cayman legislation, but that the right balance has been struck to ensure business efficiency, as well as to the depth and strength of the private sector in servicing client needs. In addition Cayman kept its A3 rating notwithstanding the challenging economic times.

If you are considering set up a fund in the Cayman Islands, we hope that the following article might be of assistance to you.

http://www.solomonharris.com/html/so-you-want-to-start-a-hedge-fund