Sarah von Schmidt
Sarah von Schmidt
Partner | Farrer & Co
JURISDICTION
England and Wales
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts & Trusteeship
Tax Advisory
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
Sarah is an experienced private client lawyer with a broad range of clients and a strong reputation for her work on trusts, tax, wills and succession planning, and family constitution and governance issues. Her clients include family offices, entrepreneurs, UK and international families, the executors of significant estates usually with complex assets including cross-border and the trustees or beneficiaries of trusts including those holding landed estates or family businesses.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Michael Nadra, Primrose Hill
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
Bar work
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Robert Brodrick
Robert Brodrick
Partner/Chair | Payne Hicks Beach
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts: Contentious
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
Robert advises wealthy individuals, their advisers and trustees in the UK and internationally. Robert also advises on contentious trust and probate work, and has recently been involved in applications to vary and rectify trusts both in the UK and offshore, and is often put forward as an independent trustee or administrator. He is well known for advising high profile US families based in the UK (alongside their existing US advisers) and he is also experienced at advising Middle Eastern families. He is also known for his sensitive handling of complicated family situations.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
The garden restaurant at Annabel’s, Berkeley Square
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Don’t worry if you don’t know the answer - far better to say let me check and come back to you.
What was your first job?
Kitchen assistant at a pub in Hampshire
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Lots of uncertainty due to the prospect of a change of government.
Robert Ham KC
Robert Ham KC
NA | Wilberforce Chambers
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Contentious
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
Trusts specialist
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Scott’s
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Keep it short and simple
What was your first job?
Labourer on building site
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Old Munster Circuit
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Robert Pearce KC
Robert Pearce KC
Barrister | Radcliffe Chambers
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Charitable Planning and Philanthropy
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
London, United Kingdom
Short Biography
Robert Pearce KC is sought after to advise and conduct litigation in the fields of private client, trusts, property law and charities. He is recognised as a leading individual across his core practice areas in Chambers UK Bar and The Legal 500 UK Bar, and as a star silk for charities work by Chambers UK Bar. He also has wide experience in the areas of professional negligence, capital taxation and commercial law. He was Standing Counsel to the Charity Commission for England and Wales, and is the Consulting Editor for the Charities volume of Halsbury’s Laws of England. He is an accredited mediator.
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?
Roberta Harvey
Roberta Harvey
Partner | Forsters
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Contentious
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
London, United Kingdom
Short Biography
Roberta Harvey heads the Contentious Trust and Estate (CTE) group at Forsters LLP. She represents high net worth individuals, family offices, trustees, protectors, executors and beneficiaries in the full remit of off shore and domestic trust and estate disputes. Roberta also works closely with her family and private client colleagues in relation to divorce, pre/post-nuptial agreements and on stress testing trust structures.
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?
Robin Rathmell
Robin Rathmell
Partner | Kasowitz Benson Torres
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Dispute Resolution or Arbitration
Reputation and Crisis Management
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Robin Rathmell, Co-Chair of Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP’s International Disputes team, is a renowned international litigator representing high-net-worth individuals and institutions in litigation involving allegations of fraud, money laundering and other forms of misconduct. Dual-qualified as an English barrister and U.S. lawyer, Rob formulates offensive and defensive global litigation strategies for international clients, including in relation to civil and criminal asset forfeiture, trusts, commercial and insolvency litigation, INTERPOL, and international sanctions regimes. Rob's engagements always span multiple jurisdictions, legal systems and asset-holding structures. He has acted as counsel in cases involving the world’s key offshore financial centers, as well as Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. In addition to his regular interface with U.S. regulatory and intelligence agencies, Rob has extensive experience coordinating legal strategies in matters involving actions brought by non-U.S. authorities, requiring sensitive negotiations with government agencies across multiple jurisdictions.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
HaSalon in Tel Aviv
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Follow Mark Twain’s advice: "If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything."
What was your first job?
Gardening
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Making progress on sanctions remediation as geopolitical trends shift.
Roger Holman
Roger Holman
Partner | Blick Rothenberg
JURISDICTION
England and Wales
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Family Office
Tax Advisory
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
I joined Blick Rothenberg in August 2022 having spent over 24 years specialising in private client taxes, working in accountancy practices, trust companies and law firms. I primarily provide advice to ‘international’ clients, including UK resident non doms or those moving to and buying assets in the UK. I also support clients to make sure that their assets and businesses are set up in the best way within the international marketplace.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Omnino
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Just keep swimming....
What was your first job?
Shoe sales
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Simon Sinek - The Power of Why
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Increasing interest in non-dom changes
Ronnie Myers
Ronnie Myers
Director | Burges Salmon
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts: Planning
Tax Advisory
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
I am a director in the private client team at Burges Salmon, specialising in the provision of tax advice to high net worth and ultra-high net worth international individuals, financial institutions and international trust companies. I mostly advises individuals who are UK resident, but not UK domiciled on a variety of areas including personal taxation, planning for moving to or leaving the UK, taxation, planning in relation to trusts and succession planning and high value UK real estate structuring and taxation. I also advise a number of international trust companies on the tax implications of their trust structures.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Benares, London
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
There are many, but the Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis definitely left its mark on me.
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Lots of speculation and planning ahead of the General Election and potential non-dom changes.
Rosalind Hetherington
Rosalind Hetherington
Senior Associate | Fladgate
JURISDICTION
England and Wales
TOP SPECIALISMS
Dispute Resolution or Arbitration
Estates: Contentious
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
Rosalind Hetherington is a Senior Associate in Fladgate’s dispute resolution team and is recognised as a rising star in the contentious trusts industry. She has experience advising in a range of dispute matters, both in proceedings and seeking resolution to disputed issues outside the court. In the trusts context, she has advised beneficiaries and trustees regarding beneficiaries’ rights in relation to trusts. In addition to her work with the dispute resolution team, Rosalind has a thriving practice advising charities and charity trustees, in particular those who are involved in engagement with their regulator or involved in proceedings.
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?
Rosie Schumm
Rosie Schumm
Partner | Forsters
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family and Matrimonial
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
Rosie is a Partner in Forsters' Family team and is known for taking a creative and pragmatic approach to family law to achieve the best outcome for her clients. She specialises in advising high net worth clients on complex divorce and financial matters, including those relating to children. Her work frequently has an international dimension, involving trusts, offshore assets and family businesses. She is also highly experienced in preparing and negotiating pre and post nuptial agreements for high net worth families.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Noble Rot
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
To thine own self be true
What was your first job?
Box office at a Cabaret Theatre in Newcastle
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Hamnet Maggie O’Farrell
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
More High Court litigation, more US families moving to the UK and family law issues surrounding that,