Carey Olsen Expands Bermuda Presence With Counsel Hire

Offshore law firm Carey Olsen has hired Sam Stevens, an attorney specializing in international arbitration, as counsel in the firm's Bermuda office.

Stevens joins Carey Olsen after having practiced law for 6½ years at DLA Piper in Singapore and Dubai. Before joining DLA Piper, Stevens did stints at Clyde & Co. in Dubai and at Norton Rose Fulbright in London.

Stevens advises clients in private funds, banking, real estate, insurance and energy, as well as on arbitration, judgments, recovery and other aspects of cross-border disputes.

"Sam is a talented lawyer and someone who has gained a valuable wealth of international experience working in London, the Middle East, and Singapore during his career," Michael Hanson, Carey Olsen Bermuda's managing partner, said in a statement.

Stevens joins Carey Olsen in Bermuda in the midst of sweeping changes to the island's legal regime, involving such matters as the eligibility of non-Bermudan law firms to operate on the island and "economic substance" requirements for international companies registered there.

Jay Webster, a Carey Olsen attorney based in Bermuda, said that Stevens is joining the firm at a time when cross-border arbitration is likely to become more prominent in the funds industry. Insurance-linked securities funds are likely to experience a volume of legal claims similar to the number that tend to arise in the traditional reinsurance space, Webster said.

"The returns of investors in insurance-linked securities funds tend to be linked to the loss experience of a limited basket of contracts, which compels directors of those funds to take a firmer stance on claims even where to do so may impact their ability to write future business with that counterparty," he said.

Webster described Bermuda as an extremely desirable place to live and practice law given its highly developed legal system, state-of-the-art IT systems and agreeable climate.

"I have been impressed by the high quality of the litigation work available in Bermuda, both in terms of the complexity of the legal issues and the high value of claims which I have been involved in to-date," Webster said.