Gemma Bellfield (née Lardner)

Practice Areas

Corporate and Financial Services Disputes; Crypto Disputes; Dispute Resolution; Enforcement of Judgments and Awards; Fraud and Asset Tracing; Funds Disputes; Restructuring and Insolvency; Shareholder and Valuation Disputes

Career

Gemma is a highly regarded commercial litigator and restructuring and insolvency specialist. Gemma advises and represents Cayman-domiciled companies, directors, liquidators, creditors and shareholders in relation to non-contentious insolvency, matters as well as contentious litigation and insolvency proceedings in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands' Court of Appeal and the Privy Council. Her clients include Cayman-domiciled, PRC-operated and HKEX listed companies, both onshore and offshore insolvency practitioners, private equity funds, financial institutions and hedge funds.

Gemma advises on a broad range of complex commercial and cross-border disputes including contentious insolvency proceedings, shareholder claims and corporate governance issues.

She regularly:

- advises and appears on behalf of both creditors and defendant companies in relation to creditors' winding up petitions

- advises companies and creditor groups in relation to restructuring, schemes of arrangement and capital reorganisation

- advises shareholders of Cayman-domiciled companies on winding up on the just and equitable ground

- advises and appears for liquidators on sanction applications and other matters arising in relation to the liquidation estate

- and advises fund managers and directors in relation to solvent and insolvent wind-downs

As part of Ogier's multi-disciplinary Restructuring and Insolvency team, Gemma specialises in formal and informal insolvency procedures, statutory remedies, and investor and shareholder rights / actions, with experience in distressed funds and private equity.

Gemma's experience includes a number of key cases for the development of the insolvency regime in the Cayman Islands, including but not limited to:

- In the matter of China Shanshui Cement Group Limited (Cause no. FSD 161 of 2018)

- In the matter of FamilyMart China Holding Co Ltd (Cause no. FSD 195 of 2018)

- In the matter of G3 Exploration Limited (Cause no, FSD 197 of 2020)

- In the matter of CW Group Holdings (Cause no. FSD 113 and 122 of 2018)

- In the matter of the Torchlight Fund LP (Cause no. 103 of 2015)

Gemma is a frequent speaker on industry panels and writes extensively on legal developments in her jurisdiction for a range of industry publications. She is also a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the International Insolvency Institute's NextGen Program and a member of its Executive Committee, a member of the International Women's Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC), former Chair of the Cayman Islands IWIRC network and current at-large director of IWIRC International. Gemma was voted RISA Next Gen Practitioner of the Year in 2021, nominated as one of INSOL’s Future Forty in 2022 and selected as a member of ABI's 40 under 40 class of 2024.

Admitted in:

2016 - Cayman Islands

2011 - New South Wales, Australia and High Court, Australia