Wayne Atkinson

Practice Areas

Wayne heads up the Financial Services and Regulatory team in the Channel Islands. He is a qualified Guernsey Advocate and BVI Attorney.

Wayne works with a broad range of regulated entities and investment funds on fundraising, transaction and investment structuring, commercial contracts and mergers and acquisitions.

As one of the leaders of Collas Crill's risk and regulatory team he also regularly advises businesses on regulatory compliance including money-laundering issues, listing rules requirements, competition law, data protection, ESG matters and Guernsey financial services regulation more generally.

Wayne has built considerable expertise in assisting company boards and activist shareholders in relation to contentious general meetings and associated issues arising out of investor actions.

A regular speaker at seminars and conferences in relation to company law, regulatory and fund matters, Wayne is well known for his down-to-earth plain speaking approach to explaining complex legal and regulatory issues.

Career

Having attended St John's College at the University of Cambridge, Wayne trained and qualified as a corporate lawyer with Herbert Smith in London, working primarily in the firm's investment funds and regulatory team. Following this he spent a number of years in the British Virgin Islands advising on a range of investment funds and general corporate transactions before joining Collas Crill in 2009.

He joined the Board of the Guernsey Nature Commission in 2023.