Overview
Ganado Advocates is a leading commercial law firm with a particular focus on the corporate, financial services and maritime/aviation sectors, predominantly servicing international clients doing business through Malta. The firm also promotes other areas such as tax, pensions, intellectual property, employment and litigation.
The firm traces its roots back to the early 1900s, and is today one of Malta’s foremost law practices, consistently ranking as a leading firm in all its core sectors. Ganado Advocates has over the past decades contributed directly towards creating and enhancing Malta’s hard-won reputation as a reliable and effective international centre for financial and maritime services. Today, the firm continues to provide high standards of legal advisory services to support and enhance Malta’s offering.
Areas of Practice
Financial Services
Our financial services and regulatory practices are internationally renowned as country leaders. This practice grouping encompasses the firm’s industry-focused teams servicing asset managers and their funds, banks, insurers and reinsurers, pension schemes and funds, investment firms, payment service providers, e-money institutions, fintech operators, trade finance institutions and other operators in the financial services sphere, with an increasing focus on blockchain and cryptocurrency related work. The practice covers all corporate, regulatory and transactional work and, in conjunction with lawyers from other practice areas, litigation, dispute resolution, tax and regulatory.
Corporate, M&A and Capital Markets
The firm regularly advises on major corporate and capital markets transactions in Malta, for the benefit of international corporate groups and private equity firms. This practice provides the full range of transactional corporate legal services, having long standing experience in assisting foreign clients in establishing local presence across all commercial sectors. The firm also operates a Corporate Services and Governance team focused in particular on supporting the boards of both regulated and non-regulated businesses.
Shipping, Yachting and Aviation
Ship registration, ship finance and admiralty law are at the heart of the firm’s maritime law practice. The firm was a pioneer in this field and its specialist maritime lawyers hold leading industry expertise and provide dependable support and advice, making the firm amongst the most established in this area. While very active in the yacht and superyacht space, the firm was also a prime mover in the development of local aviation law; today it regularly advises aircraft financiers, owners, lessors and operators.
Litigation and Dispute Resolution
Traditionally prominent in commercial and civil litigation, we have represented clients in some of the largest and most complex commercial and maritime litigation in Malta. This includes arrests and judicial sales of vessels, salvage and other maritime disputes, corporate and financial services, and insurance claims. Today, we also offer highly specialised litigation in the fields of corporate disputes, insolvency, intellectual property, public procurement, competition law, funds, press law and international arbitration.
Corporate Finance and Tax
Ganado Advocates has one of the largest and longest-established tax practices amongst Maltese law firms. The firm’s multidisciplinary team of legal and tax specialists regularly advises corporate and individual high net worth clients, both international and local, on all aspects of Maltese tax legislation and their impact, whether at structuring stage, transactional or on an ongoing basis.