Welcome to the 2021 eprivateclient Top Offshore Law Firms rankings – the second of six instalments in the 2021 eprivateclient series of private client rankings following the publication of the 2021 eprivateclient Top Residential Property Buyers.
With the pandemic highlighting the need to protect wealth, offshore law firms continue to play a vital role in the global private wealth sector with individuals and their families turning to them for legal advice and structuring and it is vital that firms that provide this advice outside of the UK are recognised.
As with last year, the 2021 Top Offshore Law Firm rankings has separately recognised firms that operate across multiple jurisdictions and those that work from a single jurisdiction with both providing advice to clients in their jurisdictions as well as across the world.
For 2021, 38 firms feature with 13 across two tiers within the multi-jurisdictional rankings and a further 25 across three tiers in the single-jurisdiction list. This represents an increase in the number of firms to feature in the rankings of 13 percent.
Across all the firms, the 38 firms (30 last year) employ 294 partners (260 in 2020), 734 fee earners (625 in 2020) and total staff of 935. The 38 firms generated fee income of £128.2 million – an increase of 4.9 percent compared to 2020 but a fall per firm from £4 million to £3.4 million.
Within the multi-jurisdictional rankings, the 13 firms are divided into two tiers with six firms in Tier I and seven in Tier II with 144 partners (130 last year), 393 fee earners (319 in 2020), private client staff totalling 481 (461 last year) and fee income of £67.7 million (a 13.2 percent climb on last year’s total of £59.8 million this year across both tiers.
In Tier I the six firms have a total of 101 partners at an average of 17 per firm. There is a total of 299 fee earners which sees an average of 50 per firm. £51.6 million was generated by the firms in fee income (up £0.1 million per firm on average compared to 2020).
Tier II’s seven firms have 43 partners among them (6 per firm), 94 fee earners (13 on average), total private client staff of 119 (17 per firm) and fee income of £16.1 million.
Within the single-jurisdiction rankings, 25 firms feature across three tiers with seven in Tier I, nine in Tier II and nine again in Tier III. Between them, the 25 firms have 150 partners, 341 fee earners, private client staff of 454 and generated £60.5 million in fee income last year.
The seven firms featured in Tier I have a total of 78 partners across the firms (11 on average per firm), fee earner numbers of 186 (27 per firm), and fee income of £34.7 million (an average of £5.0 million per firm).
In Tier II the nine firms have 48 partners (just over five per firm), 109 fee earners, just under 150 total private client staff (147) and generated fee income of £17.3 million in 2020 (an average of £1.9 million per firm).
Tier III features nine firms with a combined 24 partners, 46 fee earners, 61 private client staff and fee income of £8.5 million.
The 2021 eprivateclient Top Offshore Law Firm rankings are based on a survey of over fifty private client offshore law firms across the globe. Where data was not provided, publisher’s estimates were made, which are clearly labelled on the rankings.
To view the rankings please click below