Harjit Kaur of Maples and Calder offers her perspective on the firm's European growth and their response during the current pandemic.

Q: What are the key factors for your remarkable growth in Europe in recent years?

A: The Maples Group has been operating in Europe for over 20 years with the establishment of our London office in 1997. Our presence across the region has grown considerably since then and London continues to be an important European hub for our international client base.

We also have European offices in Dublin, Jersey, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. This enables us to provide time zone convenient access to our market leading legal, fiduciary, regulatory and compliance services as well as entity formation and management services. Our Irish practice continues to experience remarkable growth and we are proud to be recognised as the number one legal adviser to Irish-serviced funds for the seventh year running by the Monetary Insight Report.

Q: What can you tell me about the deals in your submission?

A: The deals included in our submission are representative of our position as market leaders. We are an entrepreneurial, innovative firm, and we are incredibly proud of the relationships we have developed and fostered with our longstanding clients which include some of the biggest names in the European hedge fund space. Through excellence in our work and client service, we have continued to win new work, and acted for a number of emerging mangers, including on the establishment of funds listed in HFM's top 20 launch picks of 2020. We believe that the best results for our clients are achieved by a team approach, and our lawyers work together to deliver efficient, innovative solutions, which enable us to maintain and increase our market share over the years.

Q: What effects will the current pandemic have on your business?

A: Like all businesses, the Maples Group is taking the Covid-19 pandemic very seriously. Ahead of any formal government advisories, we implemented a number of new mandatory internal measures and policies to protect the safety and wellbeing of our people worldwide. Our utmost priority continues to be the safety and wellbeing of our people, our clients and the members of the communities in which we operate and we recognise that our actions matter and that speed of response is particularly critical at this time. Therefore, in line with government and WHO guideline updates, we continue to adapt our approach to doing business to ensure that there continues to be little to no impact to clients during this time.

Q: How has your London growth been developing and what are your expectations for the nearterm future?

A: Our London office has the largest UK-based offshore funds group in London, and we also offer the broadest jurisdictional offering to clients with our Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Jersey and Irish desks housed in London. The demand for fast, pragmatic and accurate multi-jurisdictional advice has been consistently growing over the past few years. Brexit and a rise in global regulatory changes continues to fuel that demand and we don't envisage this slowing down anytime soon. To ensure that we are equipped to continue to provide exceptional service to our clients in London and throughout Europe, we recently recruited five new associates to our funds and finance teams here in London.

We are delighted to be recognised once again at the HFM European Service Awards. This award is testament to the hard work of our team and demonstrates the trust, confidence and loyalty clients have in the quality of our services and calibre of our lawyers, for which I am extremely grateful.

Q: What are the mid- to long-term impacts you expect to see post Covid-19?

A: Human tragedy is at the heart of this pandemic and I believe that the biggest impact will be to our mental health and overall wellbeing.

In financial terms, maintaining a healthy cashflow in these times is challenging for any business but smaller businesses who rely on monthly supplier payments will undoubtedly find the next few months very difficult. Undoubtedly, all businesses will have to take a highly flexible approach to their business strategy and indeed remain agile in their approach to doing business over the next few 12-18 months.

Originally published 11 June, 2020

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