The original firm of Appleby was founded by Reginald Appleby (1865–1948) in Bermuda in 1898.[2] Appleby had passed his final law exams in England in 1887[3] and had been in partnership with Reginald Gray (later Sir) attorney-general of Bermuda, from 1893 to 1897 in Bermuda as Gray & Appleby.[4]
In 1938 Appleby and Dudley Spurling (later Sir) merged their practices to establish Appleby & Spurling.[5][page needed] In 1949, that firm merged with William Kempe to become Appleby Spurling Kemp (or Kempe). Dudley Spurling was the senior partner of the merged firm until 1981.[6] In 2004 they merged with Cayman Islands' law firm Hunter & Hunter and with Jersey based firm, Bailhache Labesse in September 2006.[7]
Appleby announced on 15 June 2008 that it was to merge with Isle of Man based Dickinson Cruickshank & Co., enabling it to become the largest offshore law firm in the world with 73 partners and 200 lawyers.[8] In 2010, they opened an office in Guernsey.[9] In 2012, they announced that they would be opening an office in Shanghai. In 2014, Appleby worked with the company Apple Inc. in a function similar to a general contractor to provide offshore offices on the island of Jersey in co-operation with the law firm Baker McKenzie.[10]
Until 2016, Appleby operated in partnership with the corporate services provider Estera until Estera split to become independent.[1]
On 24 October 2017, the firm confirmed that it was subject to a "data security incident" the previous year.[11] Appleby is identified as the source of a 2017 theft of documents known as the Paradise Papers.[1][12] In December 2017, the firm announced that it intended to sue the BBC and The Guardian newspaper over its reporting of the case.[13] The Paradise Papers revealed that Appleby provided active client services to Mukhtar Ablyazov, who at the time was charged in multiple jurisdictions for fraud and embezzlement of up to $10 billion from the bank he chaired.[14]
Appleby was ranked in Band 1 global-wide offshore in a 2015 client's guide to the legal profession.[15] They have won multiple awards for its practice of offshore law.[16][17]
^"The Incorporated Law Society", The Times, 19 November 1887, p. 4.
^Who's Who in Canada, Vol. 25. International Press, 1936. p. 350.
^Martindale-Hubbell International Law Directory: Vol. 2: North America, South America, Central America, & the Caribbean. Martindale-Hubbell, New Providence, 2003. ISBN9781561605897