Although Brexit presents Isolas and Gibraltar with a “tremendous challenge”, it will also offer new opportunities for an entrepreneurial people which has always managed to adjust, Peter Isola told YGTV yesterday evening ahead of the firm’s 125^th anniversary celebrations.

Mr Isola, who is a Senior Partner at Isolas, reflected on the path taken by the law firm since it was established.

“My great-grand-uncle Horace Parodi started in 1892 – back then, the firm dealt with lots of shipping and local property matters. We now have a staff of 110 - including our Fiduciary wing – with 27 lawyers. The real growth occurred when the frontier opened; people were able to come to Gibraltar easily and we were able to access the Iberian Peninsula.”

He says that Isolas’ success derives from a set of values that has remained constant throughout.

“The fact that it has a family culture helps – even though we’re now much larger, we’ve always been based on the maxim that our clients are our friends, our friends are our clients. We understand our clients’ needs. We’re big enough to offer expertise but we’re small enough to know our clients individually and support them in every way,” he explained.

Within all the areas of legal work covered by the firm, including expanding markets like Fintech, Isolas staff adopt a pragmatic approach and strive to follow one central rule, he said:

“My father, who we call ‘the oracle’, always told us to give clear, concise legal advice. Clients don’t want to know about all these difficult legal cases, they want to know how we can solve their problem.”

Looking ahead, Mr Isola says that the firm has a positive attitude towards new technologies and emerging industries.

“Fintech is an amazing, fast-moving area. This is really what it’s about – we may be a very old firm but we’re very young at heart and very innovative in what we do. Fintech is a perfect example of how Gibraltar, being small, can get first mover advantage and also an example of how our firm can also move quickly in this area and build up expertise.”

He ends by saying that his firm, and the wider private sector, are key to the economic prosperity of Gibraltar: “We need to keep the economy going – the Government has just announced new housing projects which we fully support but all that needs funding so the private sector needs to keep the engines going as fast as possible.”