David Benest Law and Hanson Renouf announce merger

Thursday 09 July 2015

Law firms David Benest Law and Hanson Renouf have announced that they are to join forces.

They say that the merger will create a significant presence in the legal market in Jersey and build on the established reputations which both firms have in the litigation and family law fields.

The new firm, Benest Corbett Renouf, will open its doors on 1 January 2016 and will have 18 lawyers, including five partners: Advocates David Benest, Barbara Corbett, Mark Renouf, Jeremy Heywood and Jean-Marie Renouf.

Hanson Renouf was founded in 2005 and has grown steadily over its ten-year history.  As well as its core areas of litigation and family law, the firm offers a wide range of legal advice to both individual and commercial clients, including in the fields of property, wills and estates. 

David Benest Law was established in 2013 by the former Jersey managing partner of one the largest offshore law firms. Its focus has been on clinical negligence and high value personal injury work,  trust and property litigation and more recently divorce and ancillary matters. Since 2013 the firm has grown, tripling its number of fee earners.

Hanson Renouf’s legal team was described as “highly skilled” in the most recent edition of the Legal 500, which also called David Benest Law a “new and dynamic firm”. The merger will build on that skill and dynamism to create a firm dedicated to providing the highest levels of professional service to a wide range of clients, both locally and internationally.

The merger also builds on the many years of collective experience of both firms. The partners at each firm have been recognised in their respective areas of legal expertise and are seen as leaders in their fields.

“David Benest Law and Hanson Renouf partners share the same ethos of legal excellence and client service” said David Benest, the managing partner of David Benest Law, who will manage the combined firm. “I am delighted to be joining forces with a firm like Hanson Renouf which is driven by a single desire to provide the best legal services possible and which has a proven record of excellence”. 

Mark Renouf, a founding partner of Hanson Renouf, added: “Both our firms have a track record of creating successful outcomes for our clients.  The merger will not only improve our combined ability to represent our clients in the areas of litigation and family law, where we have particular strength, but will also provide a solid platform for further growth.  Our aim remains to meet the ever changing needs of our clients and we believe that this combination will be a tremendous asset to them and to both our firms.”