New offices

Several dozen lawyers, business representatives and community leaders gathered at the Ashley Ritter building on Wickhams Cay II on Sept. 12 to formally open the new offices of the law firm Ogier. The firm, which occupies the fifth and sixth floors of the building with about 50 employees, formally moved into the premises in May. Ray Wearmouth, the managing partner of the firm’s Virgin Islands office, offered a toast to “teamwork and the success of the VI.”

“Notwithstanding the economic cycle that we’re in at the moment, investing in the VI for the longer term is a very easy decision for us,” he said. “It’s on the back of large investments by the likes of Conyers, Rawlinson and Hunter, Ernst and Young, so in the longer term strategic view we are very confident in the economy of the VI.”

Guernsey expansion

A Cayman Islands-based insolvency and liquidation firm with an office in the VI has expanded its services with an office in Guernsey, the company announced. The new office, KRyS Global’s fifth location, will be headed by Timothy Le Cornu, a director in the firm’s Cayman office, according to a press release from the firm. Kenneth Krys, the company’s CEO, said that having a presence in the Channel Islands will complement the firm’s existing Caribbean locations and “strong networks” in Hong Kong. “We identified there was a need for the types of services and expertise we provide, primarily in the areas of fraud investigation and asset recovery,” he said, according to the release.