In Re: Phang Ling San [2026] CIGC (Misc) 1, the Cayman Islands Grand Court refused an application for general admission as an attorney-at-law under the Legal Services Act 2020, notwithstanding the applicant’s substantial experience and professional standing. The applicant was admitted in Malaysia, had more than 13 years experience in banking and finance law and had practised Cayman Islands law from London since 2019. The Court emphasised that the difficulty was statutory rather than a question of competence, character or suitability.
Section 32(3) of the new Act requires an applicant for general admission to be admitted in one of the jurisdictions expressly listed in that provision, and Malaysia is not included. The applicant relied on regulation 2(c) of the Legal Services (Savings and Transitional) Regulations 2025, arguing that it should preserve eligibility that would have existed under the previous regime. The Court held, however, that the regulation disapplied specified requirements but not the listed-jurisdiction condition. Treating that omission as deliberate, the Court concluded that it could not add a further exception and therefore had no alternative but to refuse admission.