Joseph de Lacey
Joseph de Lacey
Solicitor | Fieldfisher
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Contentious
Fiduciary
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
London, United Kingdom
Short Biography
Joseph is a litigator who specialises in complex trusts, estates, Court of Protection, and charity disputes. He is frequently instructed on complex and high value offshore trust disputes.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
The Delaunay
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Write as if you are writing to someone from Mars.
What was your first job?
Waiter.
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Hurricane Season (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Increased capacity disputes, and more and more litigation initiated by young beneficiaries.
Joanna Poole
Joanna Poole
Partner | Farrer & Co
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Contentious
Guardianship and Mental Capacity
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
London, United Kingdom
Short Biography
Joanna is a partner in Farrer & Co's Contentious Trusts and Estates team. She advises trustees, beneficiaries and charities on the full range of onshore and offshore contentious trusts and estates matters. Clients come to Joanna for assistance with probate claims, claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975, constructive trust claims, proprietary estoppel claims and breach of trust claims. She has particular experience of defending the validity of trusts against third party attacks on grounds such as sham. She also advises on professional negligence claims against trustees, lawyers and accountants where there is a trust or estates angle.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Spring @ Somerset House
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Never deliver bad news on a friday if you can avoid it!
What was your first job?
Working at the local SeaLife Centre
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Mary Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up!
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Adapting to the presence of AI
Jessica Williams
Jessica Williams
Partner | Harneys
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Commercial Litigation
Estates: Contentious
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
Cayman Islands
Short Biography
Jessica is a partner in the Litigation, Insolvency, and Restructuring practice group of Harneys in the Cayman Islands and is an experienced litigator. Her practice focuses on trust and estate litigation, insolvency and restructuring, shareholder disputes, and asset tracing and enforcement. Her clients include financial institutions, HNW individuals, insolvency practitioners, trustees, court appointed administrators, and other officeholders.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Morgan's in Grand Cayman
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Take one thing at a time, make lists and triple check everything
What was your first job?
Bag packer at a supermarket
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Secret History
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Increased work on managing risk and restructuring for structures impacted by the current economic climate and an increase in contentious estates
James von Simson
James von Simson
Partner | Evelyn Partners
JURISDICTION
England and Wales, Jersey, Guernsey, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, The Bahamas, Cayman Islands
TOP SPECIALISMS
Asset Management
Family Governance and Business
Family Office
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
James specialises in advising multi-generational and multi-jurisdictional families on their investments, family governance, wealth preservation, and philanthropic strategies. Having begun his career at Citigroup in 2005 as part of the Mergers & Acquisitions team in Frankfurt, he joined Evelyn Partners in 2016. Along with the day-to-day management of investment portfolios, James is also one of the firm’s research specialists with responsibility for Global Equity funds. James sits on both the STEP Worldwide Council and the CISI International Committee. He is also an Ambassador for the Diversity Project.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Depending on their spice capacity; Bibi (Indian), Chishuru (West African), Endo (Japanese), Luca (Italian)
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Those who speak the loudest rarely know the most
What was your first job?
Film extra (blink and you miss roles)
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
A greater respect for patience over fomo
Henry Mander
Henry Mander
Partner | Harneys
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Family Governance and Business
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
Cayman Islands
Short Biography
Henry is an experienced international private client lawyer and Global Head of the Private Wealth team at Harneys. He advises on all areas on Cayman and BVI trusts and succession planning structures, acting for a wide variety of UHNWs, family offices and trustees. He has particular expertise in relation to the use of STAR and VISTA trusts for holding family business. In recent years, he has provide expert testimony on Cayman trusts laws to courts and arbitration panels and has acted as the court appointed representative for certain beneficiaries in complex international trust proceedings.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
The Brasserie, Cricket Square, Grand Cayman
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Never judge a book by its cover
What was your first job?
Working on a conveyor belt in a ring binder factory
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
A Very Private Life by Michael Frayn
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
A good number of restructuring exercises following tax changes in Brazil and the new government in Argentina
Henno Boshoff
Henno Boshoff
Counsel | Harneys
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
Singapore
Short Biography
Henno Boshoff is a member of Private Wealth and Trust practice at Harneys and based in the Singapore office. He specialises in advising institutional trustees, wealthy families and private individuals on British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands law aspects of trust and private client 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?
Hector Robinson KC
Hector Robinson KC
Partner | Mourant
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Commercial Litigation
Estates: Contentious
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
Cayman Islands
Short Biography
I am a partner in Mourant's Litigation and ITPC practice group in the Cayman Islands. I was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2017. My work is now primarily focused on advising and representing trustees, settlors and beneficiaries in complex cross-border trust and estate disputes. My practice also covers regulatory investigations and litigation, insolvency disputes, fraud and asset tracing, and receiverships. I regularly appear as an advocate before the Cayman Islands Grand Court and Court of Appeal. I am the current Chairman of the Cayman Islands Law Reform Commission.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
The Lobster Pot, George Town, Grand Cayman
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Be courteous to all your colleagues. You can never tell who will become a judge one day.
What was your first job?
Clerk in the Office of the Collector of Taxes, Morant Bay, St Thomas, Jamaica
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Increased difficulty to recruit and retain associates.
Heather Tibbo
Heather Tibbo
Group Head of Family Office Services | Crestbridge Family Office Services
JURISDICTION
United States, Cayman Islands
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family Governance and Business
Family Office
Trusts & Trusteeship
Office Location
Jersey
Short Biography
Heather has over 25 years’ experience in the UHNW sector and is responsible for the Family Office Services business at Crestbridge. She has worked with UHNWIs, their families and institutions to provide a comprehensive range of family office services to families and corporate clients based in multiple jurisdictions. Heather also has extensive experience in management of client and intermediary relationships. Heather is a lawyer by background and has previously advised individuals, intermediaries and trustees in relation to offshore matters. Subsequently, she became involved in assisting in the development of wealth management organisations, focusing on her strong relationships with advisors and their clients. As a member of the Crestbridge Group’s executive team she inputs into the strategic direction and expansion of the Group. Heather played a pivotal role in establishing Crestbridge Fiduciary, a joint venture with leading US fiduciary Willow Street, and is a member of its board
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Franco's, Hermyn Street
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Always put yourself firmly in your clients’ shoes - being able to empathise, identify their motivations & needs and assess situations through the clients’ eyes is key.
What was your first job?
Temping in a hire car company during the holidays.
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Choice – a truly inspirational memoir from holocaust survivor, Edith Eger, who shows that we all have a choice as to how we deal with life. Above all we need hope.
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
I think there will be even greater appetite for fiduciaries who actively support the financial and commercial affairs of clients, which determine how they would like to see their structures working. This means pro-active and responsive trustees are key.
Giles Richardson KC
Giles Richardson KC
KC | Serle Court
JURISDICTION
England and Wales, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Bermuda
TOP SPECIALISMS
Commercial Litigation
Estates: Contentious
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
London, United Kingdom
Short Biography
Giles specialises in trusts, probate, company and fiduciary obligations litigation, both in London and offshore, as well as associated professional negligence and fraud work. He also acts in high value financial remedy actions in the Family Division.
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?
Gilead Cooper KC
Gilead Cooper KC
Barrister | Wilberforce Chambers
JURISDICTION
England and Wales, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, Jersey, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Hong Kong SAR
TOP SPECIALISMS
Art and Cultural Property
Estates: Contentious
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
Before coming to the Bar, Gilead enjoyed a brief career in publishing, editing books on photography, popular science and astronomy. He also spent a couple of years teaching in pre-revolutionary Iran. Gilead joined Wilberforce Chambers in 2015, specialising mainly in trusts and estates litigation. He has a particular interest in Art Law, as well as NFTs and digital assets. He occasionally sits as an arbitrator.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
The Garrick
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
tantum religio potuit suadere malorum
What was your first job?
Waiter. I was terrible at it.
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Matter with Things, by Iain McGilchrist
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
The proportion of offshore work has been increasing steadily over the past few years; I hope that continues.