Scott Swainson has joined Wakefield Quin Ltd’s property department as senior counsel.

Mr Swainson was previously a partner and the group head of Appleby’s property department in Bermuda for over 15 years.

Nicholas Hoskins, managing director of Wakefield Quin, said: “We are excited to welcome Scott to our firm. Scott is internationally recognised as one of Bermuda’s premier real estate practitioners and will help further support our firm’s growing property practice.

“We are also proud to announce that WQ’s property department has grown to become Bermuda’s largest and with Scott’s addition WQ is well placed to satisfy our clients’ growing demand for high-quality property related services.”

Mr Swainson advises clients on a wide variety of sophisticated commercial and residential property transactions and regularly provides property-related advice to banks and other financial institutions, hotel and condominium developers and investors.

Michelle Stone, head of property at Wakefield Quin, said clients would benefit from Mr Swainson’s vast experience.

“On a personal level, I am looking forward to working with Scott again, having been colleagues when I first arrived in Bermuda many years ago,” Ms Stone added.

“I know first-hand that he has all the essential ingredients that make a wonderfully rounded lawyer. He is a rare blend of decency, good humour and dedication twinned with an incomparable knowledge of property law and great attention to detail.”

Mr Swainson, a member of the Bermuda Bar Association, graduated from Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada with a bachelor of arts in history and earned a bachelor of laws at the University of Kent at Canterbury in England.

“It is a privilege for me to join the lawyers and staff at WQ and their related service companies,” Mr Swainson said. “They are well known both locally and abroad and I look forward to working closely with their team and clients.

“Real estate is a fascinating area where an attorney can both contribute to the welfare of a large number of Bermudian families and also drive international investment into Bermuda.”

According to the independent rankings from The Legal 500, WQ is one of two Category 1 (top ranked) firms for property work in Bermuda and Ms Stone and Mr Swainson are two of the only three top ranked property law practitioners in the country.