Ray Rubin
Ray Rubin
Partner | Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
Canada
Short Biography
A partner in the Private Client and Tax practices, Ray advises on a wide range of personal planning matters, focusing on wealth management and preservation. Her clients include high-net-worth individuals, family businesses, trust companies and charitable entities. She assists in the reorganization of assets with regard to strategic tax and succession planning; advises on all aspects of the establishment and administration of trusts, both domestic and international; designs wills and powers of attorney to deal efficiently with assets upon death or incapacity; and consults on domestic and marriage contracts. Ray has significant cross-border planning experience. She also advises on charitable planning, including the creation and registration of new charities and their ongoing compliance. Select recognition: Chambers High Net Worth, Lexpert Zenith Award; The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory; The Best Lawyers in Canada.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Margaret O'Sullivan
Margaret O’Sullivan
Managing Partner | O'Sullivan Estate Lawyers
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
Canada
Short Biography
Margaret is the Managing Partner of O’Sullivan Estate Lawyers LLP, the trust and estate boutique firm that she founded in 1998. Margaret’s practice involves all aspects of trust and estate work for domestic and international private clients, including estate planning; will and trust planning; incapacity planning; estate litigation; advising executors, trustees and beneficiaries and administration of estates and trusts, with a focus on high net worth domestic, cross border and multijurisdictional succession issues. Margaret is one of the top-ranked Band 1 private client lawyers in Canada in Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2023 and is recognized in The Who’s Who Legal: Private Client 2023, in the 2023 Edition of The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, and in The Best Lawyers in Canada 2023.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Canoe in downtown Toronto
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Do the best you can every time and the rest will look after itself
What was your first job?
Library assistant
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
More complexity and more demand given global uncertainty which has everyone on edge and higher taxation and regulation.
Kevin Lee
Kevin Lee
Partner | Stephenson Harwood
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family Governance and Business
Trusts: Planning
Tax Advisory
Office Location
Hong Kong SAR
Short Biography
Kevin is the head of private wealth (Greater China) for Stephenson Harwood. He has been consistently ranked in top band by Chambers HNW and Legal 500 for Private Client lawyers in Hong Kong. He is one of the leading private wealth, tax and trust practitioners in Asia Pacific. Kevin also advises on family businesses, and has represented corporate clients on commercial transactions and establishing operations in Hong Kong. Qualified in Hong Kong and Canada, Kevin advises clients in respect of both jurisdictions. He advises on the registration, corporate tax, intellectual property, employment and immigration aspects of doing business in Hong Kong as well as on cross-border transactions. Kevin also represents numerous high net worth clients from around the world on diverse matters including succession planning, family trust, tax advisory and compliance, wills and estate, asset preservation, family business succession and governance, private equity investments and philanthropy.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
K. Eli Akhavan
K. Eli Akhavan
Partner | Grant Herrmann Schwartz & Klinger
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts: Planning
Tax Advisory
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Eli Akhavan is a Partner at GHSK LLP and focuses his practice on tax and estate planning for high net-worth US and non-US clients. He advises domestic and international individuals and families with respect to tax and estate planning for their US assets and beneficiaries and incorporates dynasty trust planning for his clients. Eli also advises cross-border clients on all aspects of international estate matters, including foreign trusts, pre-immigration and expatriation planning, and on structuring investments in US real estate and US financial assets. Eli's practice also includes advising clients on the formation of private trust companies for purposes of wealth management and privacy. Additionally, Eli practices in the area of cross-border asset protection planning.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Reserve Cut in NYC
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Seek the highest standards
What was your first job?
Currency trading
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Executive Toughness by Dr. Jason Selk
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Increasing focus on income tax planning in the context of global mobility
Elie Roth
Elie Roth
Partner | Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts: Planning
Tax Advisory
Office Location
Toronto, Canada
Short Biography
Elie advises on all aspects of domestic and international tax planning, corporate reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate finance. He frequently consults on cross-border transactions, structuring non-resident investment into Canada and outbound investment by Canadian multinationals. He also advises taxpayers on tax audit matters and has been highly successful in representing taxpayers in tax litigation proceedings at various court levels. Elie is co-author of Canadian Taxation of Trusts, a textbook published by the Canadian Tax Foundation. An adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, Elie teaches international tax law and taxation of real estate transactions.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
David Lobl
David Lobl
Partner | Gowling WLG (Canada)
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Contentious
Guardianship and Mental Capacity
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
Canada
Short Biography
David is a partner and litigation lawyer and co-leader (national) in Gowling WLG's global Private Client Services Group. Based in Toronto, Canada, he represents trust companies, government agencies, guardians of property, attorneys for property, estate trustees and other individuals in contentious estate, trust and capacity matters, including estate administration, fiduciary, estate and capacity litigation and alternative dispute resolution. David also acts as a private mediator assisting disputing parties and families in resolving their litigious estate, trust and capacity matters. Recognized for his trusts and estates expertise by the Chambers High Net Worth Guide, Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory and Best Lawyers in Canada,
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Brian Cohen
Brian Cohen
Partner | Gowling WLG
JURISDICTION
Canada
TOP SPECIALISMS
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Contentious
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
Canada
Short Biography
Brian assists clients in the areas of estate planning, trusts and personal taxation, with a focus on advising high net worth individuals on succession planning alternatives and tax effective transfers of wealth. Brian also advises donors, charitable organizations, public and private foundations, and not-for-profit organizations in respect of donation planning, charitable registration and administration of charities. He also frequently advises clients on estate litigation matters. Brian is a past recipient of the Ontario Bar Association's Hoffstein Book Prize in Trusts and Estates and is recognized as a leading lawyer by many organizations. Brian is an active member of his community, being a International Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, Treasurer of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners Canada and a member of the Professional Advisory Committee (PAC) of the Jewish Foundation of Toronto.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Like variety so sadly there is not a single option to choose.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Just because something does not go the direction you hoped is not a reason to sit down and give up; sometimes obtaining your goals just takes a longer time and more effort than you initially thought.
What was your first job?
Working a games booth at an amusement park
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Return to in person meetings which will facilitate more training opportunities with juniors.