Offshore law firm Harney Westwood & Riegels has opened an office in Cyprus.
Located in Limassol, the Cyprus office provides advice on all aspects of commercial, banking, corporate and tax law with particular emphasis on investment flows into and via Cyprus driven by the country’s favourable tax regime.
With the addition of the Cyprus practice Harneys is the first offshore law firm to offer a fully integrated service in Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands and Cayman.
“Cyprus is a preferred jurisdiction for Russia investment, and Harneys has been the leading provider of BVI legal advice to Russia for more than three decades. So the addition of Cyprus was a natural step for us,” says development partner Peter Tarn. “But ultimately we see Cyprus as part of our broader emerging markets strategy because we believe Cyprus will be relevant to a great many of our clients including those in the Far East, India and Europe.”
Harneys entered into a “best friends” agreement with Cypriot law firm Aristodemou Liozides Yiolitis in 2008 and ALY has now formally been brought into the Harneys network.
The Cyprus office is under the leadership of managing partner Pavlos Aristodemou (pictured) who practices banking, finance and corporate law.
Other Cyprus partners are corporate and commercial partner Demetris Loizides and tax partner Emily Yiolitis, who leads the new tax and regulatory department which joins the firm’s Cyprus tax practice with its BVI and Cayman regulatory offering.
“With its political and economic ties to Europe and definitively on-shore identity Cyprus is most certainly a jurisdiction of the future,” Aristodemou adds. “We are already beginning to see international law firms following Harneys to Cyprus and we expect to see this trend continue.”
As part of the merger the firm plans to relocate a BVI lawyer to Cyprus and a Cyprus lawyer to London in the coming months.
Harneys’ other offices are located in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and London.
