David Cooney

David Cooney

Group Partner*

T +44 (0) 1481 758 958
M +44 (0) 7911 152 679

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Practice Areas

David Cooney is a Group Partner in Walkers' Guernsey Private Capital & Trusts team specialising in complicated wealth planning structures spanning multiple jurisdictions.

David's practice focuses primarily on advice to trustees in relation to private client structures with a BVI, Cayman or Guernsey connection. For several years he has also been advising in relation to foundation, trust and company structures holding crypto-currency assets, along with the associated related regulatory issues.

He has almost 20 years' experience in private practice in Guernsey, Switzerland, England and the Cayman Islands, and is recognised for the quality of his work by Chambers and Partners, Chambers HNW and Legal 500.

David advises trustees, HNWIs and families, family offices and charitable organisations on the use of trust, foundation and private trust company structures for asset protection and succession planning purposes.

David is a UK Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) and a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and is also currently a member of the STEP Guernsey Council. He has previously served on the STEP Council in England, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland.

Prior Employment Experience

Prior to joining Walkers' Guernsey team in 2022, David practised with another offshore firm in Guernsey for two years. Before that he was a partner with Charles Russell Speechlys in Zurich for three years, and prior to that he was a partner in an offshore firm in the Cayman Islands, where he worked for five years as head of the Private Client and Trusts Team, for the Caribbean region.

David trained and qualified as an English Solicitor in 2003, and worked for leading regional firms in the UK before moving offshore.

Admitted in & Qualifications

Admitted In:


BVI – 2014

Cayman – 2012

England & Wales - 2003

Other Distinctions

2022 Chambers HNW Guide - Offshore Trusts - "is well respected."

Legal 500 2022 - "David is a first-rate practitioner: he is highly technical, responsive, and client friendly. He is definitely my “go-to” Cayman lawyer for private client trust."

Legal 500 2022 - "David is one of very few lawyers in the private client sector who combines a considerate yet pragmatic approach with outstanding technical knowledge in the full range of structures used by international families for estate planning and investment."

Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2021 - "Brilliant. David has a great reputation and is really good at handling files."

Chambers & Partners High Net Worth Guide 2018 - "David's excellent, he's probably the best trust lawyer of his generation in the Cayman Islands. He is very commercial, very knowledgeable, very responsive, very thorough, a pleasure to work with. He's just very, very good."



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- Legal 500

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