Stephen has practised as a barrister and acting solicitor in Gibraltar since being called to the Bar in Gibraltar in February 1997. Stephen’s main specialist areas are the regulation and the conduct of trust and fiduciary services, Financial Services law, Commercial law and White Collar crime. For examples of work undertaken in the last few years, please see LITIGATION and PRACTICE AREAS. However, Stephen’s philosophy is that a competent lawyer ought to be able to turn his skill to most everyday situations and therefore with the exception of certain Intellectual property and most Family Law matters, he accepts instructions in virtually every type of matter. Stephen is a fluent Spanish and French speaker, as well as having conversational Italian.
For three years before coming to Gibraltar Stephen was legal consultant to an international financial services group. He has been a Consultant to international organizations and advised governments of several Commonwealth countries on proposals for legislative reform. In the latter regard he was responsible for the drafting of a substantial proportion of the Financial Services legislation in the Commonwealth of Dominica and in Nevis. He also provided critique of existing as well as proposed legislation in other Caribbean jurisdictions.
Stephen comes from an extended family containing many lawyers with a QC and a former High Court judge as well as a former President of the International Commission of Jurists being among them. Stephen ffrench Davis was educated at Ampleforth College, in Yorkshire, to which he was admitted as a scholar in 1980. He went on to read Law at Trinity College Dublin, where he obtained a First in Environmental Law and a First (“sobresaliente”) for his year as an undergraduate spent as an exchange student at Salamanca under the European Union “Erasmus” scheme. Stephen did his postgraduate BL at The Honourable Society of King’s Inns.
Outside of the law, his main interest is music. For more information on that see www.theffrenchconnection.com