Jo-Anne Stephens has been named Senior Associate at full service corporate and commercial law firm Higgs & Johnson. Jo-Anne has more than eleven years of experience in the profession and joined the Cayman office of Higgs & Johnson in 2015 as a member of the firm’s Private Client & Wealth Management Group and Commercial Group. In May of this year she was awarded the Society of Trust & Estate Professionals’ (STEP) Student Award, presented to the STEP student in the Caribbean and Latin American region who achieved the highest average marks in all exams for the STEP Diploma in International Trust Management during 2016. This adds to an impressive list of top honours from the organisation, including four STEP Worldwide Excellence Awards for the highest average scores in Company Law and Practice (July-December 2015), Trust Administration and Accounts (January-June 2016) and Trustee Investment and Financial Appraisal exam (July-December 2016). She also received an award for the highest average score overall in all exams worldwide.
Jo-Anne advises financial institutions, and high net worth individuals on the creation and administration of trusts, estate planning, contentious trust matters and the preparation of Wills. She also advises on commercial law, local licensing and regulatory requirements, CRS and FATCA, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring and other commercial transactions. She also possesses considerable experience in litigation and has appeared before the Privy Council in a successful pension plan appeal.
Jo-Anne earned an LL.B at the University of the West Indies before going on to receive the CLE at the Norman Manley Law School. She completed an MBA at the University of Oxford where she graduated with Distinction.
