Ogier promotes David Cooney in Cayman office

Ogier have announced the appointment of David Cooney as a Partner in the Cayman office.

He is now a Partner in the Business and Trust Law Group in the Cayman Islands. Prior to joining Ogier, David was a partner at English firm Aaron and Partners (August 2003 to February 2011) and a partner and head of Private Client at Gorvins (February 2011 to February 2012).  He originally qualified at Rowlands in 2003.

As an English solicitor, Chartered Tax Advisor and Registered Trust and Estate Practitioner David advised business owners, high net worth individuals and landed estates on all aspects of their succession planning, including inheritance tax and capital gains tax mitigation.  This work involved a substantial amount of tax advisory work, will and trust drafting, probate and estate administration work, and dealing with mental capacity issues arising as a result of working with an older client-base.

At Ogier David specialises in Private Client & Trust work, with particular expertise in structuring involving the acquisition and ownership of Super Yachts, relocation of ultra-high net worth clients to the Cayman Islands and the establishment of complicated trust structures.

Recent experience includes:

• Advising on the acquisition, registration and ownership structure in respect of the purchase of one of the world’s most valuable Super Yachts (2012).
• Acting for a large Swiss based family office we established an important new family trust to hold the shares in a large new investment fund.  The investment fund is the family’s main vehicle for the on-going investment of their fortune (2014).
• Providing non-contentious support to the Dispute Resolution team in:
  – An application to the Cayman courts to “bless” their decision to retire as trustee of a trust by appointing the trust fund back to an uncooperative settlor;
  – Acting for the minor and unborn beneficiaries of a substantial trust in a blessing application to allow a distribution of the majority of the trust fund for philanthropic purposes;
  – Acting for the Trustee as Cayman counsel in Cayman proceedings related to a highly publicised English High Court case. The Cayman matter concerned an exclusion from a Cayman trust and the excluded beneficiary’s rights to information.

David is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) as well as a member of the STEP Cayman Islands Council. He received the STEP President’s Prize on his way to STEP qualification and in 2011 was the winner of the Arts & Business “Individual of the Year” award for his voluntary work with the Writers in Prison Network.