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Maples Group
Headquarters	Ugland House; 121 South Church Street; George Town, Cayman Islands
No. of offices	17
Offices	Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Dublin, London, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Jersey
No. of lawyers	330
Major practice areas	Tax law
Key people	Jonathan Green (Managing Partner)
Date founded	1962 McDonald & Maples
Founder	Jim McDonald; John Maples
Company type	Limited liability partnership
Website	Maples Group

Maples Group (previously Maples and Calder) is a multi-jurisdictional firm providing legal and financial services, headquartered in the Cayman Islands. 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, and specialises in advising on the laws of the Cayman Islands, Ireland, Luxembourg, Jersey and the British Virgin Islands, 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.^[1] Today it is referred to simply as Maples and is headquartered in Ugland House in the Cayman Islands.^[2]

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.^[3]

Jonathan Green is the firm's global managing partner and is based in the Cayman Islands office.^[4]

The firm rebranded from "Maples and Calder" to the "Maples Group" in 2019.^[2]

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 erosion and profit shifting (or BEPS) actions).^[5]^[6] 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 or corporate tax havens), 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.^[7]

In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama, 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".^[8]^[9]

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,^[10] and Practical Law Company (PLC),^[11] and is the only offshore magic circle 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 tax havens^[12] such as the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Dubai, and Jersey. As with other offshore magic circle law firms, Maples and Calder have also opened up offices in the major corporate tax havens, and particularly Dublin and Singapore (see Conduit and Sink OFCs).

References

^ Maples and Calder (9 June 2012). "Founding Partner passes". Lord Maples first partnered with fellow lawyer, James MacDonald, in the 1960s and later with Douglas Calder to form the partnership of Maples and Calder, now a leading international law firm. His contributions and impact on the legal profession in the Cayman Islands were notable.
^ ^a ^b "Maples and Calder bundles up global offerings". Law Society Gazette of Ireland. 28 January 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
^ "Maples boosts offshore presence in Singapore". Retrieved 10 September 2012.
^ "Maples Group - Jonathan Green's Profile". Retrieved 20 March 2024.
^ Madison Marriage (10 November 2017). "Offshore Magic Circle law firms fear Paradise Papers fallout". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. The "offshore magic circle", a term given to the top firms based in the Caribbean and the Channel Islands that specialise in helping clients move money to low-tax countries, include Ogier, Mourant Ozannes, Walkers, and Maples and Calder, as well as Appleby. "All offshore firms are terrified about this," said one partner at a UK-based law firm, speaking privately. Another said: "The offshore firms are in complete company lockdown." Jonathan Riley, head of tax at accountancy firm Grant Thornton, added: "There will be some concern the heavens will come down on [these firms]. There will be collateral damage for the offshore centres."
^ "Maples and Calder in Bloomberg Business Week". Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
^ "Law firm specialising in tax havens to create 75 jobs in Dublin". TheJournal.ie. 19 June 2012. AN INTERNATIONAL corporate and finance law company which advises international clients on the laws of global tax havens – including Ireland – is to create 75 new jobs in Dublin over the next three years.
^ "Tax Spotlight worries the Cayman Islands". BBC. March 2009. During last year's US presidential campaign, Mr Obama referred to a building in the Cayman Islands that, he said, supposedly housed 12,000 US–based corporations. "That's either the biggest building in the world or the biggest tax scam in the world," he said. The building Mr Obama talked about is Ugland House, the head office of the international law firm Maples and Calder. Situated on the outskirts of Georgetown, it is actually the address of almost 19,000 companies. For some, the building has come to symbolise the drain on the economies of the big nations, a view rejected by the law firm.
^ Simon Bowers (2 November 2015). "US overtakes Caymans and Singapore as haven for assets of super-rich". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 June 2019. He highlighted the case of Ugland House, the Cayman Islands head office of the law firm Maples & Calder, where he said 12,000 US-based corporations were housed. "That's either the biggest building in the world or the biggest tax scam in the world," he said.
^ "Maples and Calder". Retrieved 1 March 2012.
^ "The offshore law firm elite". Retrieved 1 March 2012.
^ "Who's Who Legal Profile". Retrieved 1 March 2012.