Nigel Clifford QC is Senior Counsel to the Litigation & Insolvency department, with a focus on civil and commercial litigation. He is based in the UK and can be contacted via the Cayman office where he was previously Senior Counsel. Nigel joined Appleby in 1987, and became a partner in 1991. He was Senior Litigation Partner from 1991 to 2003, and Senior Counsel from 2003 to 2007.
Nigel has extensive experience in civil and commercial litigation, with particular expertise in complex cross-border insolvency litigation. He has undertaken work on major insolvency, banking, company and trust cases. He has advised on Cayman law for the purpose of proceedings in foreign jurisdictions, and testified as an expert on Cayman law in cases in the USA, England and Panama.
Prior to Nigel’s arrival in the Cayman Islands, he practised as a barrister in London from 1975 to 1986 across a wide range of civil, company and commercial work, including contract, tort, banking, insurance, shipping, aviation and real property.
He has received numerous rankings from internationally recognised legal publications throughout his career. Most recent rankings include PLC Which Lawyer? 2006 - 2008 for Dispute Resolution, and Restructuring and Insolvency. Nigel is also ranked by IFLR1000 2007 as an ‘Expert Lawyer’ for Insolvency and Restructuring and in Who's Who Legal 2008 as a ‘Leading Lawyer’ in Business Crime.
From 2000 to 2001, Nigel was President of the Cayman Islands Law Society, where he was involved in the Government initiatives arising from the OECD, FATF and KPMG reports. He was Chairman of the Cayman Islands Law Reform Commission from 2005 to 2006, and has been a member of the Private Sector Consultative Committee, INSOL and COMBAR.
In 2004, Nigel was appointed Queen’s Counsel. He became an accredited mediator in 2006.