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Colm Dawson

Partner

Cayman Islands

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+1 345 914 6384

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/+1 345 938 6384

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Email Colm Dawson

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English

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Colm Dawson

Colm is a Partner in our Regulatory & Risk Advisory Group.

He advises clients on corporate and regulatory governance, preventing financial crime (anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, counter proliferation financing and financial sanctions advice), economic substance, automatic exchange of information, data protection, and engaging with competent authorities. Colm is involved in assisting clients in preparing for and advising on inspection processes by regulators and engaging with clients and issuing bodies when breach notices or enforcement processes are initiated.

Colm regularly acts for asset managers, banks, fund-service providers, virtual-asset issuers, and service providers and insurers. He advises on a range of Cayman Islands, BVI specific and other globally applicable regulatory frameworks. Colm joined Walkers in 2018 spending three years in the Cayman Islands office prior to relocating to the Walkers Hong Kong Office in 2021, from where he oversaw the regulatory offering in the Singapore and Dubai offices.

He has experience across regulated financial services business, having spent extended client secondments in banking and asset management. Colm’s experience also includes regulatory permission and licensing applications and operational preparedness. He also has experience of change-of-control notifications on multi-jurisdictional projects. This includes preparing applications for banks, insurers, payment institutions, fund service providers, company managers, virtual asset service providers, and investment managers and advisors.
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We work primarily with Colm Dawson and indirectly with Lucy Frew who we find to be exceptional business partners in assisting us with resolving and crafting solutions to Cayman matters. Their timeliness and responsiveness is particularly notable.

Legal 500

Experience and recent work

Colm has worked exclusively on financial services regulatory matters since admission as a Solicitor in 2011. Prior experience involved three years in the financial services regulatory practice of Matheson in Dublin. He has also worked in-house at a leading fund administrator, solving the practical and commercial challenges of regulatory updates across multiple business lines and also spent two-and-a-half years as a regulatory consultant at KPMG.

Qualifications

Admitted in:

  • British Virgin Islands
  • Cayman Islands
  • England and Wales (not practising)
  • Ireland (not practising)
  • Registered Foreign Lawyer Hong Kong 2021-2023


Education:

  • LLB (Hons), University of Limerick, Ireland
  • Diploma (Hons), International Financial Crime, University of Manchester, UK
  • Diploma (Hons), Financial Services Compliance, University College Dublin, Ireland
  • Master of Arts (Hons), International Affairs, Kings College London
  • Cayman Islands Legal Practitioners Association
  • Graduate of the examination of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists
  • He has acted as a guest faculty member at the Law Society of Ireland and University College Dublin.
 

2024 Legal 500 Asia Pacific - Next Generation Partner - "Extremely knowledgeable and very responsive."

2023 Legal 500 Asia Pacific - Next Generation Partner

2022 Legal 500 - Recommended - Regulatory & Compliance - "We work primarily with Colm Dawson and indirectly with Lucy Frew who we find to be exceptional business partners in assisting us with resolving and crafting solutions to Cayman matters. Their timeliness and responsiveness is particularly notable."

Team Members

Other team members with related expertise

Lucy Frew
Lucy Frew profile image

Lucy Frew

Partner

Cayman Islands

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+1 345 814 4676

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+1 345 939 4676

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Email Lucy Frew
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Andrew Howarth
Andrew Howarth

Andrew Howarth

Partner

Cayman Islands

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+1 345 814 4561

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+1 345 926 4561

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Email Andrew Howarth
View profile
Ian Mason
Ian Mason

Ian Mason

Partner

Cayman Islands

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+1 345 814 4600

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+1 345 916 4600

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Email Ian Mason
View profile
Juliana Tang
Juliana Tang

Juliana Tang

Partner

Cayman Islands

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+1 345 814 4612

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+1 345 936 4612

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Email Juliana Tang
View profile
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