Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates

Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates is a Valletta law firm that treats intellectual property as part of a wider picture of business, tax and family planning. Its IP team registers trade marks, patents and designs in Malta, protects marks across the European Union and prepares patent applications in all technologies, which makes it a useful contact for a UK founder, inventor or brand owner who wants a foothold in Malta and the EU single market.

The firm was set up in 2002 and works from a 17th-century palazzo in the capital. On VisitMalta.co.uk it appears in our directories of patent attorneys in Malta and lawyers in Malta, because its work reaches well beyond a single specialism.

Who the firm is

Chetcuti Cauchi was founded in 2002 by former Big Four tax and legal advisers who wanted to build Malta's first multidisciplinary law firm, combining legal, tax, immigration and corporate expertise under one roof. In 2010 it moved into Palazzo St Ursula in Valletta, and the team grew to 75 professionals. In 2021 it strengthened its international reach through strategic relationships with tax and legal professionals worldwide, and in 2024 it launched a new brand and website built around digital access.

The firm combines a boutique, almost family approach with the standards expected of a large international practice, and its partners stay personally involved in client work. Its mission is to empower visionary leaders and families worldwide with intelligent, ethical solutions. Leadership includes co-founding partner Dr Maria Chetcuti Cauchi, who leads the property practice, and Matthew Debono as Chief Executive Officer.

Because Malta is a small, English-speaking jurisdiction, UK clients often find the working style familiar. Contracts, filings and correspondence are in English, and the firm routinely works alongside a client's own advisers abroad.

The firm's people pages list dozens of lawyers, tax advisers and specialists, grouped by practice such as commercial law, corporate tax, European residency, ICT law, iGaming, mergers and acquisitions, privacy, regulatory compliance and transfer pricing, so most clients can be matched with someone who focuses on their kind of matter.

Intellectual property services

The IP practice is led by Dr Susanna Grech Deguara. Its guiding principle is to learn the client's business in depth and then apply a pragmatic, commercial approach, so that protection fits what the business is trying to achieve. The team acts for companies, individuals and educational institutions worldwide, and other law firms also retain it to advise their own clients on Maltese IP questions.

Companies registered in Malta can draw on the firm's corporate technology tools for governance, reporting and compliance, and the team also advises on the regulatory framework for company service providers, beneficial ownership registers, asset holding companies and notional interest deduction rules. Specific solutions include Malta trading companies and royalty companies, which are of particular interest to businesses that earn income from licensing intellectual property.

Specific services include registering trade marks, patents and designs in Malta, protecting trade marks within the EU, and running trade mark, design and patent searches in local databases and registers. The team also prepares and prosecutes domestic and foreign patent applications in all technologies, advises on copyright, and negotiates and drafts confidentiality, development, distribution, technology transfer, licensing and joint venture agreements for both domestic and foreign entities.

The firm's lawyers are registered trade mark agents in Malta, registered EU trade mark attorneys and European patent attorneys before the EPO. The portfolio covers mechanical, electrical and computer inventions, medical devices, consumer products, and chemical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical work. Whether the aim is protecting an invention, the look of mass-produced goods, an artist's work or a trader's name, the team can propose a straightforward or combined route.

The firm also shares guidance on topics such as IP in family office wealth planning, IP succession planning, protection for start-ups, trade mark distinctiveness in Maltese case law and recent EU design law reform. Anyone weighing whether to base a technology business here can pair this with our overview of financial services in Malta.

Corporate services and company formation

Many IP clients also need a company, and the corporate services practice, led by senior partner Dr Priscilla Mifsud-Parker, covers formation, administration, banking support, accounting and tax in one team. Services include company administration, local directors, domiciliation, redomiciliation, bank accounts, company secretarial work, fiduciary services and back-office or virtual office support.

The team handles citizenship by merit applications, global residency programme applications, permanent residence matters, family office set-up and succession planning, covering the legal paperwork, the tax position and the practical steps of arriving, such as arranging health insurance and finding a home. Sports law, defamation, media, privacy, shipping, private aircraft and telecoms are among the other areas the lawyers cover, which means a client with unusual needs is unlikely to be turned away for lack of a specialist.

The firm makes a point of keeping legal and accounting work in-house instead of farming it out to separate providers, and it has over twenty years of experience designing and running corporate and trust structures, in some cases across generations. Its partners are active in STEP Malta, the Institute of Financial Services Practitioners, FinanceMalta, the Malta Chamber of Advocates and several international tax bodies.

If you are comparing structures, our explainer on Malta's corporate tax structure sets out the basics, and our featured partner CLA Malta offers a different route for company, tax and relocation services.

Tax, residency and private clients

Beyond IP, the firm is known for private client work. Practice areas include cross-border structuring, European residency, citizenship law, personal tax, family office advisory, trusts, succession, philanthropy and impact advisory, residential property and US-Malta immigration. Partners such as Dr Jean-Philippe Chetcuti and Dr Priscilla Mifsud-Parker lead the citizenship, residency and tax teams, with Dr Antoine Saliba Haig covering immigration and global mobility.

For a UK reader thinking of a move, the most relevant starting points on our site are the Malta relocation guide and the Malta tax guide for UK nationals. Remote workers may prefer our digital nomad guide. The firm itself can advise on the legal side of each route.

The firm has also been recognised in the Chambers High Net Worth guide for Malta private wealth law, and its team members contribute to publications and podcasts on Maltese tax and residence.

Industries and sectors served

The firm organises its work around industries as well as practice areas. They include artificial intelligence, family offices and high-net-worth individuals, financial services, manufacturing, retailing, technologies, yachting, charities and philanthropy, film, gaming and pharmaceuticals and biotech. IP advice links naturally to several of them: software and gaming brands, film productions and biotech inventions all depend on protected rights.

Its financial services group works with fund managers, investment services providers, credit institutions and insurance intermediaries, and with the regulator, the Malta Financial Services Authority. Gaming companies can read more in our iGaming in Malta guide.

The firm also gives back through pro bono legal help, charity art exhibitions in its offices, department-led volunteering and reduced-rate support for start-ups.

Visiting the office in Valletta

The registered office is at Palazzo St Ursula on St Ursula Street in Valletta, which is currently under refurbishment. Visitors use the main entrance at 86 Merchants Street. Valletta is compact and best explored on foot, so a meeting fits easily into a day trip; our Valletta guide and our page on St John's Co-Cathedral help you plan the rest of the day.

If you are staying overnight, see our selection of hotels in Valletta and the UK flights to Malta page. The firm does not publish its fees, so describe your project briefly and say which rights or structures you need. Use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message to the firm, who will reply to you directly.