Despite taking a hit from the recession like the rest of the world, lawyers are still living the life in offshore tax havens. Briana Everett gets a taste of their island life

High gross salaries, low income tax and a work/life balance to rival any other seems too good to be true, but plenty of Australian and New Zealand lawyers are enjoying the many perks of working in a tropical tax haven.

The Cayman Islands provides an idyllic island lifestyle which is hard to beat. The sun is always shining, the beaches are beautiful and crime rates and pollution are low, offering a very attractive alternative to the stressful life of a city lawyer. As the economy recovers, opportunities are beginning to emerge in the financial centres of the offshore world and deals are starting to happen.

A coastal career move

The calm, relaxed lifestyle of most offshore jurisdictions can lead some to assume the work is just that. But the standard of work offshore is incredibly high and the market is competitive, offering significant career opportunities for lawyers.

Given the opportunities available, coupled with the highly sought after island lifestyle, there is intense competition for jobs in the large offshore firms, making it difficult for lawyers to secure the job they want.

Vice president of legal recruitment at CML Offshore Recruitment, Simon Scott, says securing a position offshore is akin to applying for a job at a top 10 London firm, in terms of the quality of candidate the firms are looking for.

"With a small number of vacancies and a large number of good candidates on the market for firms to choose from, competition is intense," Scott says.

Director of Burgess Paluch Legal Recruitment, Doron Paluch, agrees and says while there are vacancies, competition is fierce and the market is selective.

"Given that so few roles have come up in the past 18 months, for every one rare role that does arise, there are many more lawyers putting their hands up," Paluch says. "The other problem Australians and New Zealanders are finding is that they're often competing with more UK qualified lawyers who are applying for these roles."

Paluch says lawyers from Magic Circle firms may have an edge over Australians or New Zealanders, given some of the partners of offshore firms may themselves have Magic Circle backgrounds and might initially prefer the UK qualified lawyers. However, he says Australians are still getting a good look-in and while there is still a long way to go, the market is picking up. "I'm getting regular communication from the law firms I deal with in the Caymans and the Channel Islands advising me of continued improvements," he says.

Sheryl Dean, a New Zealander and partner at global firm Walkers in the Cayman Islands, says most of the lawyers in the Caymans are from either Magic Circle firms or top corporate firms in Commonwealth countries, such as Australia, New Zealand or South Africa, quashing her initial concerns regarding the standard of work in offshore firms.

Prior to her move to the Cayman Islands in 2006, Dean spent three years in London at Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer, and later joined Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher before deciding she needed a change.

"I got to the stage where I didn't want to keep working in London anymore but I really wasn't ready to go home to New Zealand either," she explains. "That was almost four years ago now and I don't see myself leaving any time soon!"

Recently made partner in Walkers' corporate and international finance department following the birth of her daughter, Dean says a work/life balance is truly achievable working offshore.

"That's one of the things I love the most about working in the Cayman Islands," she says. "It's the balance that I have managed here. When I worked in London or New Zealand I never felt that balancing a family and career would work."

While the working hours are not necessarily any better than most city firms, with only a five minute commute to work each day, Dean says a work/life balance is more manageable. "You work hard, but there is a really good balance here which I haven't found anywhere else," she says. "You've got great career opportunities but you've also got a great work/life balance. It's more than most people can ask for."

The island life

Although life offshore appears close to perfect, with it comes a dose of cabin fever, given the tiny populations and small spaces.

"[The Cayman Islands] is the most beautiful place on earth. It's a very good lifestyle [and] there's a big Australian community," says Robert Green of CML Offshore Recruitment, now based in Hong Kong after a stint in the Cayman Islands. "It really is beautiful but don't forget it's a very, very small island," he says. "It has a population of 65,000, which is very small, and 35,000 of them are expats."

Despite its lack in size, Dean says any feelings of restlessness can be easily fixed with a few trips to New York City or Miami. "It's a small island so you need to get off it, but it's very easy to get a direct flight to New York or to Miami," he says. "There's no high-street shopping but a weekend in Miami can fix that."

While she admits there are challenges associated with living on a small island, she says the beautiful outdoor lifestyle and the work/life balance that is afforded, far outweighs those challenges.

Living large

Aside from the beautiful weather and the island lifestyle, what really makes working offshore worthwhile is the large disposable incomes courtesy of a minimal or zero PAYE tax system.

According to Scott, salaries at the large offshore Caribbean and Bermuda firms are comparable to the salaries offered at a top 10 London firm but with no tax, as in the Cayman Islands, or low tax, as in the British Virgin Islands (eight per cent) or Bermuda (4.75 per cent).

In the Channel Islands, Scott says, salaries are somewhere between what a top city or regional firm in the UK would offer, with an upper tax limit of 20 per cent.

According to Paluch, salaries in the Cayman Islands reached their peak a couple of years ago and have been steady since. "Lawyers with at least four years of experience were getting US$200,000 tax-free, with sign-on bonuses of $20,000, and relocation expenses paid for including airfares," he says. "Salaries are significantly higher than they are [in Australia] and the quality of work is very good on an international level."