Alvarez & Marsal expanded its global footprint with the opening of a new office in the Cayman Islands. Alex Lawson, as managing director and head of A&M Cayman Islands, along with Chris Kennedy, as managing director, and Barry Lynch, as senior director, will lead the new branch.

The A&M Cayman Islands office complements the firm’s ability to work on restructuring engagements in parallel tracks with the U.S., UK, Europe and Hong Kong. This expansion will benefit clients by strengthening the reach of A&M’s UK-based Insolvency practice and bolstering the firm’s soft wind-down and advisory offering.

“Restructuring advisory is at the cornerstone of A&M’s operational heritage. The Cayman Islands is the fifth largest financial jurisdiction in the world. Our expansion here, and plans for growth, demonstrates our continuing commitment to meet our clients’ complex, international restructuring needs, related global valuation demands, as well as disputes and investigations concerns,” said Bryan Marsal, A&M’s co-founder and CEO.

Lawson brings with him more than 15 years of restructuring experience, 10 of which were exclusively in the Cayman Islands. He has served as an appointment holder for provisional, official and voluntary liquidations, controllerships and inspectorships and has held key leadership roles in numerous engagements. Prior to joining A&M, Lawson served as a partner with KPMG in the Cayman Islands.

Kennedy is a qualified insolvency practitioner in the Cayman Islands, a chartered accountant (Ireland) and a Cayman Islands Monetary Authority-registered director who advises on distressed solutions for financial services sector clients. He specializes in corporate advisory, restructuring and insolvency and has been appointed as an official, provisional and voluntary liquidator to numerous Cayman registered entities. Kennedy has worked in the Cayman Islands for more than nine years.

Lynch is a qualified insolvency practitioner in the Cayman Islands specializing in providing distressed solutions to the financial services sector with diverse experience across the hedge fund, banking and capital markets, oil & gas and shipping industries. He has been appointed an official liquidator by the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands and has led multiple high profile multi-jurisdictional insolvency, restructuring and advisory cases. Prior to joining A&M, Lynch served as a senior manager with RHSW Caribbean and as a manager with PwC in Dublin.