Maples Group (previously Maples and Calder) is a multi-jurisdictional firm providing legal and financial services, headquartered in the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the s ...

. It has offices in many financial centres around the world, including several tax neutral jurisdictions. Its law firm is a member of the

offshore magic circle The offshore magic circle is the set of the largest multi-jurisdictional law firms who specialise in offshore financial centres, especially the laws of the British Overseas Territories of Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and British Virgin Islands, and t ...

, and specialises in advising on the laws of the Cayman Islands,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the la ...

and the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = " Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Br ...

, across a range of legal services including commercial litigation, intellectual property, sport, and finance, in which the firm has a focus on the structuring of tax efficient legal structures (or vehicles).

History

MacDonald and Maples was founded by Jim MacDonald and John Maples. MacDonald later retired and Douglas Calder joined as a partner, resulting in the name of the firm being changed to Maples and Calder. Today it is referred to simply as Maples and is headquartered in Ugland House in the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Islands office was opened in the early 1960s, followed by the Hong Kong office in 1995. Three years later, the London office opened its doors, with the British Virgin Islands and Dubai office establishing a presence in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Maples and Calder opened a Dublin office in 2006. 2012 saw the opening of a second office in Asia, when their Singapore office opened in September 2012. Alasdair Robertson is the firm's global managing partner and is based in the Cayman Islands office. The firm rebranded from "Maples and Calder" to the "Maples Group" in 2019.

Practice areas

The principal focus is on tax management (e.g. structuring and domiciling of tax vehicles, corporate transactions for IP–based and Debt–based based erosion and profit shifting (or

BEPS Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) refers to corporate tax planning strategies used by multinationals to "shift" profits from higher-tax jurisdictions to lower-tax jurisdictions or no-tax locations where there is little or no economic a ...

) actions). Maples and Calder also offers a range of other tax focused legal services, including providing advice on major infrastructure and property development projects (domiciled in offshore

tax havens A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or ...

corporate tax haven Corporate haven, corporate tax haven, or multinational tax haven is used to describe a jurisdiction that multinational corporations find attractive for establishing subsidiaries or incorporation of regional or main company headquarters, mostly du ...

s), and the establishment and structuring of a "physical presence" in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands and Dublin, including business licensing, real estate, immigration and employment law. In 2009, U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

, described the headquarters of the Maples Group, Ugland House, the then legal home of 12,000 U.S. corporations as: "That's either the biggest building in the world or the biggest tax scam in the world".

Awards

Maples Group has maintained its position as the largest Cayman Islands law firm, holding top rankings for finance, corporate, investment funds and litigation in legal directories such as Chambers and Partners, Legal 500, and Practical Law Company (PLC), and is the only

law firm to ever achieve Tier 1 in every category of the International Financial Law Review (IFLR).

Locations

Maples Group maintains a multi-jurisdictional network of offices in leading Caribbean and Channel Islands offshore

such as the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands,

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics o ...

, and

. As with other

law firms, Maples and Calder have also opened up offices in the major

s, and particularly

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bo ...

(see Conduit and Sink OFCs).

References

External links