Baker & Partners

Managing Partner: Stephen Baker

Number of partners: 11

Number of other fee-earners: 26

International Offices: Jersey, BVI, Cayman Islands, London

Baker & Partners is a leading independent offshore specialist litigation and dispute resolution firm with a presence in Jersey, BVI, Cayman Islands and London.

The firm’s expertise and high reputation is perhaps best exemplified by being counsel to the liquidators of the offshore structure used to launder the proceeds of this vast multi-jurisdictional fraud where some USD$7.65 billion were stolen from Malaysia through the purported sovereign wealth fund 1MDB and its sister company SRC. The 1MDB scandal is described by the UK Guardian as the world’s biggest crime. The firm’s offices have worked seamlessly together, and collaboratively with other firms, in this high-stakes matter of public interest.

The firm has acted in some of the most substantial offshore asset recovery litigation. The firm has been responsible for recovering many hundreds of millions of pounds on behalf of corporations, individuals and governments.

Baker & Partners has maintained a conflict-free model, having no relationship with an associated financial or fiduciary services business. It is genuinely independent. The firm’s history of involvement in asset recovery (particularly in high profile kleptocrat cases), commercial and trust disputes, and insolvency work is highly unusual and probably unique.

The founding member of the firm, Stephen Baker, and those who built it were originally criminal barristers. A guiding principle of the firm has been the establishment of a team of independent minded lawyers who have the complete confidence of the courts before whom they appear, wholly focussed upon the fearless and independent representation of the interests of our clients.

The firm’s knowledge of cross-jurisdictional structures including those based on trusts and corporations was initially driven by the very substantial criminal fraud and money laundering cases handled by the founders in their roles as prosecuting counsel. Those cases would almost always involve confiscation following conviction. They would work with insolvency practitioners appointed by the Courts (including the Court’s own chief enforcement officers) to recover assets hidden behind complex trust and corporate structures. From this beginning and consequent deep understanding of the lawful and unlawful uses of offshore structures, the firm developed its expertise in the fields of civil fraud, asset recovery, trusts, and commercial and contentious insolvency.

The firm considers that the scale and nature of the instructions received to reflect the high level of trust clients have in the team and the regard held for the firm’s offshore expertise.

Civil & Commercial Litigation

Web3 & Digital Asset Disputes

Contentious Trusts

Fraud & Asset Recovery

Insolvency

Criminal Prosecution & Defence

Regulatory Legal

Trusts Disputes

• Global counsel to the liquidators of the offshore structure used to launder the proceeds of this vast multi jurisdictional fraud where some USD$7.65 billion were stolen from Malaysia through the purported sovereign wealth fund 1MDB and its sister company SRC.
• We acted for the Federal Republic of Brazil, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the Kenyan Ethics Anti-Corruption Commission.
• Baker & Partners currently act for a Middle Eastern bank in asset tracing efforts involving the use of disclosure, gagging and freezing orders to identify assets of a judgment debtor. Having frozen assets in excess of USD$20 million, the bank is now seeking to set aside transfers into trust as being in fraud of creditors.
• We acted for the beneficiaries of a trust to remove and recover trust assets from uncooperative Panamanian trustees.
• We acted for Primafides (Suisse) SA in relation to an application for its removal as trustee of a trust.
• We acted for a group of retail investors who petitioned for the winding up of Atom Holdings, the parent company of the Atom Asset Exchange (“AAX”). Baker & Partners successfully obtained the appointment of joint provisional liquidators (“JPLs”) as well as sealing/gagging orders to allow to JPLs take immediate control of AAX and to prevent the further misappropriation of investors’ digital assets. Baker & Partners successfully obtained an order to wind up Atom Holdings and the appointment of joint official liquidators.

Civil & Commercial Litigation: Stephen Baker, Simon Thomas, William Redgrave, Lynne Gregory, Amy Benest

Contentious Trusts: Stephen Baker, Simon Thomas, William Redgrave, Lynne Gregory, Amy Benest, Jared Dann, Adam Crane

Fraud, Asset Tracing & Recovery: Stephen Baker, Simon Thomas, William Redgrave, Cyril Whelan, Lynne Gregory, Jared Dann, Adam Crane, Shaun Reardon-John, Jennifer Colegate, Fleur O'Driscoll

Insolvency: Stephen Baker, Simon Thomas, William Redgrave, Lynne Gregory, Amy Benest, Jared Dann, Adam Crane, Shaun Reardon-John, Jennifer Colegate, Fleur O'Driscoll

Prosecution & Defence: Stephen Baker, Simon Thomas, William Redgrave

Regulatory: Stephen Baker, William Redgrave, Cyril Whelan, Lynne Gregory, Adam Crane, Shaun Reardon-John,

Criminal International: Adam Crane, Shaun Reardon-John

Trusts Disputes: Amy Benest, Jared Dann, Stephen Baker, Simon Thomas, William Redgrave, Lynne Gregory, Adam Crane, Fleur O'Driscoll

Jersey

Baker & Partners LLP

Midland Chambers, 2-10 Library Place, St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, JE1 2BP

Legal: +44 (0) 1534 766254

Regulatory: +44 (0) 1534 719222

E-mail: [email protected]

BVI

Baker & Partners (BVI) Limited, 2nd Floor, Charles Court Building, 189 Main Street, Tortola, British Virgin Islands VG1110.

Main Office: +1 284 394 9227

Cayman Islands

Baker & Partners (Cayman) Limited, P.O. Box 636, Buckingham Square, 720 West Bay Road, Cayman Islands, KY1-1107

Main Office: +13457463650 E-mail: [email protected]

London

Baker & Partners, Central Court, 25 Southampton Buildings, London, United Kingdom, WC2A 1AL

Main Office: +44(0)2072484090 E-mail: [email protected]