Collas Crill has extended its family law services in the Channel Islands with the appointment of new Guernsey-based partners Elizabeth Couch (shown in main image) and Adrian Brown.
Adrian and Elizabeth have transferred their family law practice from Browns Advocates, a leading firm on the island. To build on Collas Crill’s family law services across the Channel Islands, partner Dionne Gilbert has joined the international private client and trusts team in Jersey and will work closely with Adrian and Elizabeth.
Adrian led the family law department at Mourant before setting up Browns Advocates in 2012. He is a trained collaborative lawyer, mediator, family arbitrator, a member of the International Academy of Family Lawyers and Resolution, and adjunct professor for the family law module of the Guernsey Bar examinations. He is also current Chair of the Guernsey Family Bar Association.
Since joining Browns Advocates in 2012, Elizabeth has built up a strong client base in Guernsey. She ran a very successful family law practice at 4 Paper Buildings in London before relocating to the island. Elizabeth is a trained collaborative lawyer and a member of both the Family Law Bar Association and Resolution.
With a background in contentious matters, Dionne will offer hands-on contentious input right from the outset, whether in a general succession and planning context or when the firm is instructed at the start of divorce proceedings. Dionne has acted for a number of high profile individuals in hotly contested divorces and she has already become an invaluable member of the team.
Collas Crill’s international private client and trusts teams advise ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) and their families and regularly need matrimonial input.
Guernsey Managing Partner Christian Hay said: ‘This is an exciting development for Collas Crill as we expand our family law services for the first time in many years. Adrian and Elizabeth are the go-to family lawyers in Guernsey and we are delighted to have them on board to offer our clients a broader portfolio of legal services.’
Kellyann Ozouf, who heads up the team in Jersey, said: ‘Dionne’s move to the team enables us to provide a service that I don’t believe any other private client and trusts team on the island currently offers. Our clients will be looked after in all respects and we will no longer have to advise them to go elsewhere for matrimonial input. Jersey is a very small island and clients (like us) prefer to keep their affairs private so they have very much welcomed this development.’
