Eversheds hands Monaco over to Lawrence Graham

Eversheds' Monaco practice has found a buyer, with Lawrence Graham stepping in to take on the private client practice.
Last week, Monaco's regulatory authorities gave permission for the Eversheds office to be handed over to Lawrence Graham.
Eversheds' London managing partner Michael Brown said that the Monaco practice had not been a focus of the firm for some time. "We're pleased that the Monaco team have found a home more suited to their practice," he said.
Lawrence Graham has serviced an array of so-called 'super wealthy' clients among the financial elite in Monaco and elsewhere on the Cont-inent. However, it recently decided that a local presence would help develop its burgeoning private client practice. In the immediate future, Lawrence Graham lawyers will visit the office rather than use it as a full-time base.
Eversheds' entire Monaco office, comprising 20 staff and including partners William Easun and Peter Walford, has joined Lawrence Gra-ham. Reflecting its range of European clients, the office has French, German, Swiss and English lawyers. The office is barred from doing local law work.
Andrew Young, head of Lawrence Graham's tax and private capital department, has been instrumental in building up his firm's Monaco practice and has close ties with Easun and Walford. "Of the 34,000 tax residents in Monaco there are more than 5,000 wealthy Britons. Monaco, in many ways, is in the middle of a renaissance and is growing in fashion for many entrepreneurs," he said.
Monaco is one of six jurisdictions on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's list of uncooperative tax havens. However, it is making efforts to clean up and in June last year its parliament adopted modifications to its existing money laundering legislation which brought its corporate service providers, portfolio managers and 214 trustees into line with the obligations of banks.