New appointments in Harneys BVI and Hong Kong offices

The Hong Kong office of Harney Westwood & Riegels, which is the oldest and largest law firm in the British Virgin Islands and one of the leaders in international legal practices, has announced the new appointments at its headquarters. It announced the arrival of Michael Gagie from the BVI office. He took the post of the head of the Hong Kong office.

Ray Wearmouth, the lawyer who was on this position, returned to the British Virgin Islands and continues to lead the Financial and Commercial branches of the firm in the BVI.

Both lawyers participating in this rotation have obtained high reputation in the BVI offshore jurisdiction and internationally.

Michael Gagie regularly appears in the global legal directories as one of the leading corporate lawyers in the BVI. He was qualified as an English solicitor in 1997. Working in several London law firms, namely Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Simmons & Simmons, he specialized in mergers and acquisitions. He was seconded also to the London Stock Exchange. In the same period of time he was engaged by Shell International Limited as an in-house counsel.

His current areas of legal practice include all corporate and commercial disciplines. He joined Harneys in 2003. Now he regularly consults the AIM exchange in London on subject of the listing of BVI corporate entities. This year he is also registered as a Foreign Lawyer in Hong Kong and since July 2006 he is a partner.

Ray Wearmouth, another Harneys' partner, has started his career in 1994, when he was qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales and started working in the corporate department at DLA. He joined Harneys in 2001 and became a partner on December 2004. In 2005 he was registered in Hong Kong as a Foreign Lawyer. Currently he is working as Head of Banking & Finance and Corporate & Commercial in the BVI.