Sara-Jane Knock
Sara-Jane is a partner in our litigation and arbitration team.
Based in the British Virgin Islands and heading up the Withers BVI office, Sara-Jane is recognised by Chambers Global and Legal 500 BVI as a leader in her field, advising on a wide range of matters from commercial, contractual and finance disputes to insolvency, fraud and asset tracing. Sara-Jane also advises on probate and trust matters, both contentious and non-contentious.
Working together with her colleagues in other Withers' offices around the world, Sara-Jane strives to provide her clients with a dedicated global team, ready to tackle cross-border cases with local on-shore and offshore experience. She regularly acts for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), trustees, beneficiaries, insolvency practitioners, creditors, companies, directors, shareholders and officer holders, either directly or via intermediaries. She also works with key intermediaries, service providers and foreign lawyers in various jurisdictions to ensure a seamless service for her clients. Additionally, Sara-Jane frequently works with her colleagues in the global fintech team in relation to BVI matters regarding the development of emerging products in that area.
Sara-Jane practices public law and recently acted for the BVI Government in relation to a Commission of Inquiry brought to investigate governance issues and allegations of corruption.
Sara-Jane is a Solicitor-Advocate, regularly appearing in Court on behalf of her clients, including dealing with interim injunctions, appointment of receivers, appointment of liquidators and dealing with shareholder disputes, just to name a few.
Having trained at Withers, Sara-Jane is dual qualified, maintaining practising certificates in both the BVI and England.
Practice Area
Panel
- Other Publications
Qualified Year
- 2011
Membership
- Recovery and Insolvency Specialists Association (BVI) Limited
- Solicitor Advocate of the Senior Courts of England and Wales
- Solicitor Advocate of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court
- BVI Bar Association
- INSOL International – International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Professionals
- Women's Offshore Network (WON) BVI
- International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC)
Qualifications
- LPC (2007)
- Graduate Diploma in Law (2006)
- MA International Relations (2002)
Education
- BPP Law School, (2007)
- BPP Law School, (2006)
- University of St Andrews, (2002)
1 Contributions by Sara-Jane Knock
PRACTICE NOTES
Arbitration in the British Virgin Islands: Legislation, Court Assistance, Confidentiality, Enforcement (New York Convention/ICSID), Interim Relief, Insolvency, State Immunity and the BVI International Arbitration Centre
Introduction
This Practice Note aims to present a succinct outline of the arbitration environment in the Territory of the Virgin Islands (the ‘BVI’). For background purposes, the BVI is a British Overseas Territory. It possesses its own constitution (the Virgin Islands Constitution Order 2007, which superseded the Virgin Islands Constitution Order 1976), its own legislature, which is responsible for enacting laws, and its own distinct system of government. UK law forms part of BVI law where it is expressly received into local law or where it constitutes an element of the common law (Common Law Declaration of Application Act (Cap 13), section 2). Note: the cases mentioned below are reported by LexisNexis®
The legislative framework
The BVI’s first arbitration statute was the Arbitration Act 1976 (the ‘1976 Act’). The 1976 Act was not amended or updated following its original enactment and remained comparatively narrow in scope and detail overall...
Arbitration
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