Harneys

Harneys is a full-service offshore law firm that manages all transactional, contentious, and private client disciplines. Its lawyers often work alongside Harneys Fiduciary, its strategic alliance partner, which offers a full complement of corporate, wealth, and fiduciary services. The firm’s extensive knowledge and expertise make it well-equipped to serve clients’ interests. Visit the expertise page to see how Harneys can advance your business.

• Banking & Finance | The Banking & Finance practice has decades of experience in offshore credit and security legal issues relating to debt finance, including loan finance, debt issuance, lease financing, shariah‑compliant finance, distressed debt, and enforcement of security and derivatives.
• Corporate | The Corporate team excels at complex cross‑border transactions involving Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Cyprus, Jersey, and Luxembourg vehicles. Its sixty‑year track record includes leading deals across the full spectrum of public and private M&A, equity capital markets, private equity, reorganisations, and corporate advisory work.
• Digital Assets & Blockchain | The firm provides expert guidance on blockchain, crypto, and digital assets in the BVI and Cayman Islands. The team advises on DeFi, blockchain, DAOs, and other Web3 projects, including NFTs and digital tokens, and assists investment managers with digital asset fund formations and fintech companies with regulatory business plan reviews and AML/CFT/PF matters.
• Funds & Asset Management | The firm advises on all aspects of the life of a Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, or BVI fund, including formation, restructuring, and closure, in both distressed and planned scenarios. Its approach is characterised by excellence, responsiveness, and price transparency.
• International Arbitration | The International Arbitration team comprises experienced specialists who regularly advise on all aspects of enforcement and interim measures supporting arbitration. The team provides high‑quality advice at any stage of arbitral proceedings, with extensive experience conducting arbitrations under ICC, SIAC, LCIA, HKIAC, LMAA, and UNCITRAL rules, and enforcing awards under common law, the New York Convention, and the Washington Convention.
• Litigation & Insolvency | The firm is an offshore litigation and insolvency specialist with a team spanning the BVI, the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, and Singapore. It provides transparent, timely, and innovative solutions for clients in complex multi‑jurisdictional disputes.
• Private Wealth | Clients choose the Private Wealth practice for specialist advice on the laws of the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and Cyprus. The firm’s internationally acclaimed lawyers deliver practical solutions to high‑net‑worth and ultra‑high‑net‑worth individuals, their families, and their businesses.
• Regulatory & Tax | The firm advises on anti‑money laundering and terrorist financing compliance, financial services regulation, sanctions, tax, tax information exchange, and other financial services regulatory law areas.
• Restructuring | The dedicated Global Restructuring group offers specialist expertise to navigate the complexities that can arise for a distressed company in a cross‑border environment.

Harneys is an offshore law firm offering expert advice on the laws of the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Bermuda, Anguilla, and Jersey to a global client base that includes the world’s top law firms, financial institutions, and investment funds, as well as high-net-worth individuals. Its extensive jurisdictional knowledge and expertise make the firm well-equipped to serve clients’ interests effectively.

190+ lawyers, 11 locations | The firm’s network comprises over 190 lawyers across 11 locations, including market-facing offices in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. This expansive reach enables Harneys to deliver reliable and timely services on even the most intricate cross-border transactions and legal disputes, ensuring robust support for clients globally. Visit the people page to find the right lawyer to assist.

The firm’s values embody the ethos behind Harneys and how it approaches its work. They are the foundation of the business and define its refreshing, open, and personable approach. Together, they guide the firm in delivering exceptional service and building enduring, trusted relationships with its clients.

• Open | Complex issues require people who can get to the heart of the matter honestly and directly. The firm is committed to clear thinking and straight talk. This clarity ensures it consistently delivers advice that inspires confidence and trust.
• Pragmatic | Exceptionally experienced, down-to-earth, and commercially driven, the firm helps its clients find pragmatic solutions in unpredictable times. Its expertise allows it to simplify the complicated and provide practical, real-world strategies.
• Energetic | The firm’s lawyers are progressive innovators and decidedly un‑lawyer‑like. Ambitious and dynamic, they go above and beyond for clients. That drive empowers the team to act decisively, ensuring it is always one step ahead.
• Innovative | The firm is responsive to change, always striving for better solutions, and unafraid of new ideas. It uses an entrepreneurial approach to help clients move forward. By combining creativity with precision, it transforms challenges into opportunities.
• Personable | The firm works with clients in an engaging, friendly, and open manner. Its objective is to build collaborative and responsive partnerships. Building meaningful relationships is at the heart of everything it does, because trust is earned through authenticity.

Harneys’ story began in 1960 when Harold Harney established a legal practice in Road Town, Tortola. He was joined in 1967 by Neville Westwood and in 1974 by Michael Riegels, and together they formed Harney Westwood & Riegels. For over six decades, Harneys has set the standard for legal services in the BVI and expanded to offer a full range of offshore legal services. Since its founding, the firm has remained at the forefront of the development of offshore jurisprudence and consistently advises on legislative developments in its jurisdictions.

Harneys has expanded rapidly in recent years, bringing its unique brand of personable client service to new markets and delivering the highest quality counsel to clients in their own languages and time zones. One of the firm’s core strengths has always been its agility: its ability to respond quickly and effectively to clients’ changing needs as economic and political landscapes shift.