Offshore Legal Jobs
Living and working offshore is often a complete lifestyle change and comes with a number of advantages to onshore life. Your quality of life will improve in different ways, you will pay little or no income tax, and you will be able to partake in (mainly outdoor) activities which you’re unlikely to be able to do onshore.
Reasons people may want to move offshore include:
- A change of scene – whilst city living can be extremely convenient, it comes with its price (both tangible and intangible).
- A new arrival – with the arrival of a new child or even for those contemplating parenthood, people may re-assess what their priorities are. Raising a child in a house with a pool and a sea-view that’s only a 10-15 minute drive from the office, coupled with access to excellent schools, virtually no pollution, low crime and an array of outdoor pursuits that aren’t available in the city can be a very attractive proposition.
- Seeing the world – for those who have always worked in England and for globe-trotting Antipodeans alike, working in one of the Offshore jurisdictions can offer the opportunity to use their ample holidays (as well as a typical 25 day holiday allowance, Offshore jurisdictions often have more public holidays – occasionally up to 14 or 15 vs England’s typical 8 days) to travel to destinations that would have been too time-consuming to reach previously. From the Channel Islands, Europe is easily reached (by air or sea), Cayman opens up Cuba, Jamaica as well as North America, and BVI offers Puerto Rico and the whole of the Eastern Caribbean.
- Professional development – whilst you may have had some dealings with Offshore law firms during the course of your onshore practice and the work may be closely related to what you have done, there will be differences. There will be new legislation to familiarise yourself with (although one of the key selling points of Offshore jurisdictions is that the laws are far more simple and user-friendly than, for example, the doorstop-sized English Companies Act) and, because the offices are often much smaller than you may be used to, you are likely to have a lot more partner and client interaction and be an integral part of client-care and future business development.
- Money – Offshore jurisdictions have little or no income tax so it is perfectly possible to build up a nest-egg of savings whilst still having a luxury lifestyle. It’s no wonder that offshore legal jobs are often the highest paying roles on may job boards.
A move Offshore isn’t for everyone – there will always be pros and cons to weigh up such as leaving behind family and friends, the potential culture shock of leaving the city, or even having a phobia of chickens (this has cropped up as part of the consideration process – BVI has a lot of chickens running wild and even Cayman has a few too!).
Practice areas:
The main practice areas you will find offshore legal jobs in are as follows:
- Corporate – Offshore jurisdictions allow tax-efficient structuring of corporate groups, so there are understandably a lot of corporate entities and a lot of associated corporate work to be done. The British Virgin Islands have over 350,000 active business companies which means there are over 10 times as many companies as inhabitants! There is almost universal demand for corporate lawyers across the various Offshore jurisdictions.
- Finance – this varies between jurisdictions with Cayman having a good variety of finance streams (including more niche areas like fund finance, asset finance and structured finance), the Channel Islands having a strong real estate finance practice, whereas there seems generally to be less demand in the BVI.
- Funds – much as this is a pinch-point for city firms, Offshore firms are often incredibly eager to recruit those with relevant funds experience from onshore jurisdictions. Funds departments will often take candidates who only have corporate experience but are interested in getting involved in funds work because there is such a shortage of funds lawyers generally.
- Litigation – a by-product of there being so many funds and corporate entities is that there is inevitably a steady flow of disputes work. This can take the form of general commercial/chancery litigation, specialist insolvency litigation or a growing need for private client and trust litigators. Cross-border in nature, litigators can have the opportunity to work on incredibly high-profile disputes that sometimes end up in the Privy Council and instruct (and work closely with) top London silks.
- Private Client – as well as the contentious trusts work that is done by the litigators, there is growing demand for private client lawyers with trust formation experience.
- Real Estate – occasionally there are opportunities for Real Estate lawyers, but these are fairly rare.
Jurisdictions
Delve further into the following pages which provide more information about living and working there:
If you think that working Offshore could be right for you, please don’t hesitate to Contact Us.