The merger will formally take effect from 16th January 2006, and will mean that the combined firm is able to to advise institutional clients on Cayman Islands, BVI, and Jersey law from offices in London, Hong Kong, the British Virgin Islands, Dubai, the Cayman Islands, Jersey and now Dublin.

The firm will have 6 partners, 14 lawyers and 15 staff in Dublin and a total of 140 lawyers worldwide.

Commenting on the merger, Binchys’ senior partner Jennifer Caldwell announced that:

"We are very excited by this move. It will provide an extremely attractive proposition for our clients seeking advice across a range of jurisdictions, where we will now be able to offer a 24-hour capability."

Maples and Calder’s senior partner Sir Anthony Travers added:

"We have followed the development of the Dublin market over a number of years and believe it provides an attractive base from which to play to our key strengths in the areas of hedge funds, mutual funds, private equity and structured finance. The various financial products that we have developed over many years will readily adapt to the Dublin legal and regulatory environment and, as we have found in other jurisdictions, we are likely to be highly cost competitive."

"Combining the Cayman Islands' traditional strength as an international financial centre with a European onshore base through which financial structures can access double tax treaty networks and which provides the European passport for cross-border marketing of debt and equity securities is compelling from the business perspective."