Richard Field

Practice Areas

Richard is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution team at Appleby, specialising in corporate, trust and commercial litigation and regulatory matters. His regulatory focus is on data protection (including cyber), AML and compliance, technology and eGaming. Richard is one of the global leads for Privacy and Data Protection at Appleby and is the Guernsey lead for the firm’s Technology and Innovation practice group. He was described by Legal 500 as “the go-to lawyer for data protection matters” and “the Island’s eminent data protection lawyer”. He is also the only Band 1 ranked lawyer for fintech in Guernsey.

Richard has acted for a range of local and global institutions on complex, cross-border disputes involving funds, banking and investment relationships and trusts. Many of the cases he has worked on involve fraud, asset-tracing and applications for injunctive relief, or regulatory issues (such as enforcement, AML, bribery or sanctions), often resulting in ground-breaking judgments, both in Guernsey and England. He is Chair of GACO (Guernsey Association of Compliance Officers) and involved in both the current review of changes to Guernsey’s financial crime regime and preparations for the island’s MoneyVal assessment.

He has been heavily involved in trust litigation, appearing in the trial of the Tchenguiz litigation in Guernsey, also advising on trustee removal, mistake and momentous decision applications, working along the firm’s private client team. He appeared in a three-day trial of a will construction matter which will become the leading authority on such issues, and is working with the Jersey team in defending a novel claim involving reconstitution of a trust.

Richard has been working on data protection and cyber matters for many years and is recognised as being at the forefront of advising on Guernsey´s Data Protection regime and GDPR. He sits on the States of Guernsey´s GDPR Industry Working Party, is involved in policy development and is both a committee member of the Islands’ Data Governance Forum and a qualified GDPR Practitioner. He is instructed by various insurers in relation to cyber/incident response and managing breaches from initial discovery to remediation.

Richard sits on the Digital Guernsey Panel and has been involved in providing input into the island's Electronic Agents legislation, believed to be a "world first" in terms of setting a regulatory framework. He has also been involved with the Guernsey Financial Service Commission's G-FIN working group and their wider initiatives at engagement with the local business community on fintech issues including most recently, the island’s response to the proposed Crypto Asset Reporting Framework. He has historically been involved with the first use of blockchain in the private equity marketplace, spoken at the island's first blockchain conference and advised on several digital identity, digital wallet, connected vehicles, cryptocurrency and e-CDD projects. He was regarded as the only Guernsey Band 1 Notable Practitioner by Chambers Global Fintech 2024, with clients noting that he “is extremely knowledgeable in the area of data protection” and “is a pleasure to deal with and has valuable experience and detailed knowledge”.

Richard has written and spoken about GDPR/privacy extensively, both in the Channel Islands and further afield, working on projects including guidance on Guernsey´s data protection regime, co-authoring a guide to the impact of GDPR in the Channel Islands and contributing the Guernsey chapter to global law firms and legal subscription databases. He has also provided input to STEP UK on their GDPR guidance for trustees and fiduciary office holders, OneTrust on various articles, and Business Brief on regulatory/technology topics.

Career

Richard qualified as an English Solicitor in 2002 and qualified as a Guernsey Advocate in 2013.

Professional Memberships

Richard sits on the Digital Guernsey Panel and has been involved in providing input into the island's Electronic Agents legislation, believed to be a "world first" in terms of setting a regulatory framework. He has also been involved with the Guernsey Financial Service Commission's G-FIN working group and their wider initiatives at engagement with the local business community on fintech issues including most recently, the island’s response to the proposed Crypto Asset Reporting Framework. He has historically been involved with the first use of blockchain in the private equity marketplace, spoken at the island's first blockchain conference and advised on several digital identity, digital wallet, connected vehicles, cryptocurrency and e-CDD projects. Richard was regarded as the only Guernsey Band 1 Notable Practitioner by Chambers Global Fintech 2025, with clients noting that he “has advanced knowledge of all complex data protection matters and explains them in a way that a layperson can understand” and “is particularly excellent on data protection, privacy and proceeds of crime regulations.”

Richard has written and spoken about GDPR/privacy extensively, both in the Channel Islands and further afield, working on projects including guidance on Guernsey´s data protection regime, co-authoring a guide to the impact of GDPR in the Channel Islands and contributing the Guernsey chapter to global law firms and legal subscription databases. He has also provided input to STEP UK on their GDPR guidance for trustees and fiduciary office holders, OneTrust on various articles, and Business Brief on regulatory/technology topics.