Melanie Jones

Melanie Jones is a partner based in the Barbados office of Lex Caribbean. She leads the firm’s international business practice. Melanie was born in Barbados and grew up on the island until leaving at age 18 for England, to read law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University. Melanie has 20 years experience in private practice, having begun her career in England in 1992 at the London office of international law firm Freshfields (now Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer). In 1997 she relocated to the Cayman Islands and practiced with Maples and Calder for six years before returning home to Barbados to join Lex Caribbean in 2003. She was admitted to the Law Society of England and Wales in 1994, to the Cayman Islands Bar in 1997 and to both the Trinidad and Tobago Bar and the Barbados Bar in 2005.
 

Melanie specializes in international business transactions. She enjoys a practice featuring a clientele of international corporations and financial institutions, with, currently, a heavy emphasis on high value transactions originating in the Far East, Canada, the USA and the UK, as well as an increasing number of projects with a South American focus. Melanie also leads the Entrepreneurial Business Group at Lex which advises local and overseas clients on a variety of matters, all characterized by the entrepreneurial nature of the relevant business. Melanie serves on the board of directors and is the President of the Barbados International Business Association ("BIBA"). In the latter capacity she also sits on the board of the Barbados Private Sector Association and is a member of the Sub Committee of the Social Partnership. She sits on BIBA’s Service Providers Committee and has also constituted and currently chairs the BIBA Legal Profession Committee. Melanie also writes on Barbados legal and business issues regularly and has most recently been published in Longtail International’s Guide to International Financial Centres (edition for Chinese investors), the International Financial Law Review, Business Barbados, Invest Barbados' annual publication and the Times Special Report on Barbados. Melanie has been ranked for multiple consecutive years by the International Financial Law Review as a leading lawyer in Barbados.
 

Melanie is also involved in various charitable initiatives. She sits on the QC Give Back Committee which raises funds for the construction of a sports pavilion at Queen’s College in Barbados, where Melanie attended secondary school. On behalf of Lex Caribbean Melanie also acts as pro bono legal adviser to the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation ("BEF"). Melanie is also a director of the BEF and champion of its Business Facilitation pillar. As such she executes, together with a team of dedicated volunteers, on a number of business facilitation projects including the BEF's Free WiFi "Wi-Not" mission and the design and production of a series of free seminars put on by lawyers for entrepreneurs.

Through her involvement with BIBA, the BEF, Lex Caribbean and otherwise, Melanie contributes to initiatives concerning legislation, policy, practice and development in Barbados in respect of the legal profession, entrepreneurship, domestic and international business.