Four local lawyers have opened a new "boutique'' law firm with offices in both Hamilton and London which will specialise in commercial litigation with "a Bermudian flavour''.

Managing partner Rod Attride-Stirling, partners Kehinde George and Everard Barclay Simmons and senior counsel Jan Woloniecki are the faces behind the new law firm Attride-Stirling and Woloniecki which is the first local law firm to have offices in the Lloyd's building in London.

An advertisement in The Royal Gazette yesterday listed Attride-Stirling and Woloniecki's specialties as international commercial litigation and arbitration, insolvency and corporate rescue and special corporate projects.

Mr. Attride-Stirling said: "We will essentially be a commercial litigation firm. This will be the bulk of our work. We will do commercial litigation with a Bermudian flavour.'' This is the area of law which played to the four's strengths, he explained.

"This is the area the four of us practise in and have practised in for a number of years almost exclusively.'' The bulk of the firm's work is set to be in the reinsurance market, continued Mr. Attride-Stirling.

"We will be dealing exclusively with commercial litigation going through Bermuda. Any major reinsurer in Bermuda will hopefully be in our target market.

"Reinsurance litigation is the bulk of the litigation that goes through Bermuda and that is the area where we have what is perhaps our highest concentration of expertise.'' Mr. Woloniecki is considered and authority on the subject having published one of the leading tax books on reinsurance law, he continued.

"Jan's tax book will be found in the library of every law firm in the City of London which does insurance and reinsurance work,'' said the managing partner.

Mr. Attride-Stirling ruled out local legal work for the time being.

"What we have done is brought together our experience and decided to offer a boutique service. We aren't pursuing the local market at all. We will not be doing local legal work or general corporate work.'' Then there is the office in Lloyd's 1986 Building at One Lime Street in London.

"This makes us the first Bermudian law firm to open an office in the Lloyd's building in London,'' noted Mr. Attride-Stirling.

Lloyd's is considered the centre for insurance and reinsurance and Bermudian companies provide a great deal of the corporate capacity there, he noted.

"Opening an office there gives us greater access to the work flowing between Lloyd's market and Bermuda's market -- and there is a lot of it. This is a good opportunity to exploit that.'' The four lawyers were previously together at Milligan-Whyte & Smith before resigning from that firm in July of last year.

"When we left that firm, the three of us -- the three partners -- set up the new firm immediately. Jan joined us subsequently.'' He declined to talk about the team's departure from Milligan-Whyte & Smith noting "that's the past''.