Mourant appoints eight new partners in record year

Mourant, a leading offshore law firm, is pleased to announce the appointment of eight new partners, seven of them internal promotions, with effect from 1 February 2022. 

Alex Henderson, James Broad, Jessica Lee, Jonathan Moffatt, Katie Hooper, Mike Jones and Paul Trewartha have all been promoted to partner.  Michael Popkin has joined as a partner from another firm. 

In the last six months, Mourant has appointed 11 new partners drawn from every location and practice area, with 36% of these appointments being female. 

Mourant Global Managing Partner, Jonathan Rigby, said: "I am delighted to welcome an exceptional group of colleagues to Mourant's global partnership.  This is a record promotion round, reflecting a period of impressive growth and development for our business.

He added: "Our new partners bring diversity of thought, training and experience to our partnership which will help us to support our clients as they navigate the increasingly complex legal and regulatory landscape.  

We are committed to enabling and empowering a diverse range of exceptional people to reach their full potential. While these promotions contribute towards our goal of having diverse representation in our leadership, we recognise we still need to do more. I look forward to working with each of our new partners as we build and develop our firm for the future.

Mourant was recently awarded the prestigious Offshore Law Firm of the Year Award by The Lawyer Awards for the second year in a row. This follows its recognition as Offshore Law Firm of the Year by Asian Legal Business Hong Kong Law Awards and Offshore Law Firm of the Year by Chambers Europe in 2021.     

Meet the Partners 

Alex Henderson (Jersey) is a funds lawyer who advises across asset classes with particular expertise in private equity and real estate investment structures.  Alex's clients range from first time managers to institutional fund managers.  Alex qualified in London at SJ Berwin (latterly King & Wood Mallesons) and worked in their investment funds team before moving to Goodwin Procter.  He joined Mourant in 2018.

James Broad (Hong Kong) specialises in investment funds with a focus on private equity and hedge funds, guiding clients through the initial set-up process, launch and ongoing operation and maintenance of their fund.  James trained and worked in the corporate team at Skadden in London, before moving to another offshore law firm in Hong Kong.  James joined Mourant in 2018. 

Jessica Lee (Hong Kong) advises both local and multinational companies on cross-border corporate law transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, financings, corporate restructurings, general corporate advisory and pro bono matters.  Jessica trained and worked at Linklaters, which included secondments to The Royal Bank of Scotland and Prudential, before joining Mourant in 2015.

Jonathan Moffatt (Cayman Islands) specialises in commercial litigation and insolvency. Prior to joining Mourant in 2015, Jonathan practised as an English barrister with Outer Temple Chambers in London for four years, acting in a range of commercial and financial services work. He has also completed secondments at the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England and worked as a Judicial Assistant to Lord Rix in the Court of Appeal. 

Katie Hooper (Jersey) is an experienced litigator focusing on a broad spectrum of litigation matters, including contentious trusts and private client, insolvency, banking and professional negligence. Katie practised at the Bar of England and Wales from 2009 to 2012 and 2017 to 2019 and has previously been named as one of eprivateclient's Top 35 Under 35 and by Citywealth in their Future Top 100: 2020 List.

Michael Popkin (Hong Kong) has particular expertise in complex cross-border transactions and disputes, focusing on contentious and non-contentious aspects of offshore investment funds and trust structures, shareholders' disputes, insolvency & restructuring.  Before joining Mourant in 2022, Michael worked for another offshore firm for 6 years in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands.  Previously, Michael practised for 14 years in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution department of Allens in Sydney, Australia and for 10 years with other leading law firms in South East Asia. 

Mike Jones (Jersey) joined Mourant last year from the Jersey Financial Services Commission, where he was Director of Policy & Risk, to launch and lead Mourant Consulting, the firm's new regulatory consulting business. Mike has over 20 years' regulatory experience including working at Deloitte (London), the Australian Financial Services regulator and Crestbridge (Jersey).

Paul Trewartha (Hong Kong) advises on a wide range of banking and finance matters, including structured finance trades, debt capital market issuances and margin loans as well as a broad spectrum of cross-border transactions including asset finance, fund financing, acquisition and leveraged finance and general corporate lending. Paul joined Mourant in 2014, having previously worked at Clayton Utz in Australia and Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong.