Appleby (previously Appleby Spurling & Kempe, Appleby Spurling Hunter and Appleby Hunter Bailhache) is a leading offshore legal services provider. It has offices in offshore locations including

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

, the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

, the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory, and the largest by population. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located so ...

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

and

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

as well as the financial centres of

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. It is referred to in the

Paradise Papers The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsche Z ...

, and included in the group of law firms known as the

offshore magic circle The offshore magic circle is the set of the largest multi-jurisdictional law firms who specialise in offshore financial centres, especially the laws of the British Overseas Territories of Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and British Virgin Islands, and ...

History

The original firm of Appleby was founded by

Reginald Appleby Reginald Woodifield Appleby (18 September 1865 – 30 August 1948) was an English lawyer, practising in Bermuda, who in 1898 founded the predecessor of the law firm that now trades as Appleby. He served as a major in the Bermuda Volunteer Rif ...

(1865–1948) in Bermuda in 1898.Appleby, the offshore law firm with a record of compliance failures.
Will Fitzgibbon, ''The Irish Times'', 5 November 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2017. Appleby had passed his final law exams in England in 1887 and had been in partnership with Reginald Gray (later Sir) attorney-general of Bermuda, from 1893 to 1897 in Bermuda as Gray & Appleby. In 1938 Appleby and Dudley Spurling (later Sir) merged their practices to establish Appleby & Spurling. In 1949, that firm merged with William Kempe to become Appleby Spurling Kemp (or Kempe). Dudley Spurling was the senior partner of the merged firm until 1981. In 2004 they merged with

' law firm Hunter & Hunter and with

based firm, Bailhache Labesse in September 2006. Appleby announced on 15 June 2008 that it was to merge with

based Dickinson Cruickshank & Co., enabling it to become the largest offshore law firm in the world with 73 partners and 200 lawyers. In 2010, they opened an office in Guernsey. In 2012, they announced that they would be opening an office in Shanghai. In 2014, Appleby worked with the company

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

in a function similar to a general contractor to provide offshore offices on the island of

in co-operation with the law firm

Baker McKenzie Baker McKenzie is an international law firm headquartered in Chicago. Founded in 1949 under the name Baker & McKenzie, it has 68 offices in 46 countries and employs 4,558 attorneys. History Co-founding partner Russell Baker, who had graduate ...

. Until 2016, Appleby operated in partnership with the corporate services provider

Estera Estera was a global provider of corporate, trust, fund and accounting services. The company was created following a management buyout of the fiduciary group of Appleby. It rebranded as Estera in April 2016. In February 2020 Estera merged with Oc ...

until Estera split to become independent.

Paradise Papers

On 24 October 2017, the firm confirmed that it was subject to a "data security incident" the previous year. Appleby is identified as the source of a 2017 theft of documents known as the

. In December 2017, the firm announced that it intended to sue the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' newspaper over its reporting of the case. The Paradise Papers revealed that Appleby provided active client services to

Mukhtar Ablyazov Mukhtar Qabyluly Ablyazov (, ''Mūhtar Qabylūly Äbliazov''; born 16 May 1963) is a Kazakh businessman and political activist who served as chairman of Bank Turan Alem (BTA Bank), and is a co-founder and a leader of the unregistered political ...

, who at the time was charged in multiple jurisdictions for fraud and embezzlement of up to $10 billion from the bank he chaired.

Rankings and recognition

Appleby was ranked in Band 1 global-wide offshore in a 2015 client's guide to the legal profession. They have won multiple awards for its practice of offshore law.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Offshore law firms Law firms established in 1898 Companies of the Caribbean Offshore magic circle Paradise Papers 1898 establishments in Bermuda

History

Paradise Papers

Rankings and recognition

See also

References

External links