Guyana—Dentons welcomes JayaSingh-Backreedy and her team in their combination with Dentons Delany in Guyana, continuing its expansion and diversification strategy in the region, a move that will also strengthen the firm’s robust practice groups in the Caribbean. Singh-Backreedy will instruct a team of five seasoned lawyers and four business professionals.

Singh-Backreedy boasts over 16 years advising both public and private sector entities including renowned local and international companies in key sectors within Guyana, not limited to industrial, construction, and mining. Jaya also served as in-house counsel to the Guyana Energy Agency advising on petroleum-related matters whilst also conducting prosecutions and other legal proceedings in accordance with the GEA Act, its amendments and regulations. Her broad practice includes hire purchase and leasing transactions, debt collection and management, dispute resolution, joint ventures, and acquisitions.

Commenting on her appointment, Mrs. Singh-Backreedy said, “I am delighted and honoured to join the dynamic Dentons Delany team, and together with my colleagues and associates, to play an instrumental role in the development and expansion of the Guyana office. This expansion is timely with Guyana's current unique position in the region and affords us an opportunity to offer diverse services to not only the existing sectors but to the emerging innovative industries.”

“With the continued emergence of the oil and gas industry in Guyana and the overall resurgence of Guyana’s economy, the timing could not be better in tripling the capacity of our Guyana office and have Jaya lead the way as the firm’s managing partner in this office. Jaya will be the third woman managing partner appointed by the firm in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) within the last year.

As the only global law firm with an office in the country, clients will benefit from the scale of Dentons capabilities, resources, and specializations which will provide them with coordinated efforts in the region. Global and regional companies will also profit from having one point of contact wherever they transact business whilst having top-tier local experienced lawyers to rely on” concluded Dustin Delany, Dentons Caribbean Chair and Regional Managing Partner.

Guyana’s tactical location in the region, along with this significant addition to our unique team of cross-border advisors will enable Dentons to continue to connect clients with our leading local talent throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Guyana’s main assets and means of foreign direct investment have been its exhaustive natural resources, including its rainforests, sugarcane plantations, rice fields, fisheries, minerals, and bauxite and gold reserves. However, with the discovery of a rich deep-water offshore oil field in 2015 in the Stabroek Block about 120 miles from Georgetown, investor and government interest have now refocused on sustainable economic growth driven by the energy sector. Another 17 oil fields had been found by the end of 2020, and it has been projected that these fields would be yielding some 750,000 barrels of oil per day by 2025. An American oil and gas company, which made the discoveries, entered into a partnership with Guyana, and in December 2019 it began production in the first field discovered. Rapidly increasing oil production will certainly bring growth in other economic sectors.

Singh-Backreedy joins Dentons Caribbean Managing Partners, Erica Marshall-Forde in Barbados, Shalini Rose Campbell in Trinidad and Tobago, and Stuart Cullen in the British Virgin Islands.

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