Nicholas Warr
Nicholas Warr
Senior Partner and Head of International Private Wealth | Taylor Wessing
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts: Planning
Tax Advisory
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
Nick is a Senior Partner and Head of International Private Wealth at Taylor Wessing. He specialises in advising UHNW individuals and families with interests mainly on fiscal and succession planning. Nick's practice is international in nature, and he represents individuals, families and family offices in the Middle East, the USA and Europe, as well as the UK. Most of his clients have personal and business interests in several different jurisdictions. Nick has a particular focus on advising individuals from the finance industry on all aspects of their personal and corporate structuring. Nick has led Taylor Wessing’s Private Wealth group for the last eight years and during that time it has become widely recognised as one of the very few international practices able to offer a fully integrated service for UHNW families.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Chutney Mary
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Strive for the best but prepare for the worst.
What was your first job?
Postman
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Eat that Frog
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Increased internationalisation
Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis
Partner | EY
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Relocation and Cross-Border Advisory
Trusts: Planning
Tax Advisory
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
Michael has over 26 years of experience in advising on US and UK private client tax issues. He leads the 50 strong HNW group within the US/UK Cross Border team at EY as well as overseeing EY’s private client marketing strategy. He provides advice across a broad spectrum of areas including: US and UK interaction on personal income, capital and social security taxes, US gift and estate taxes, UK inheritance tax, and tax-efficient charitable planning. He also has a keen interest in the taxation regarding divorce cases. Michael is a qualified Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) and a US Enrolled Agent (EA). Michael won Accountant of the Year in Citywealth’s Magic Circle 2021 Awards and was shortlisted by Spears for Accountant of the year in 2023. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Politics from University of Warwick.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Vivat Bacchus – consistently good quality for a reasonable price
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Always question 'why' something is as if you can understand what the law is trying to achieve you will develop much more quickly - make the time to research tax topics which you come across as part of your work even if not required for that project.
What was your first job?
Mending/renovating super-market trolleys! These were bought from and sold back to the supermarkets with a massive mark up. Summer work for a specialist firm with a niche but highly profitable business- a lesson to be learned is that there a business opportunity everywhere!
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Hyperion by Dan Simmons - similar in structure to The Canterbury tales but sci-fi! Modern sci fi classic crossing many genres
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
The focus for the coming year is going to be on planning for a future change of government. I expect there to be great interest from clients in exploring the potential to relocate to other overseas jurisdictions.
Meghan McCormick
Meghan McCormick
Associate Attorney | Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Contentious
Guardianship and Mental Capacity
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
California, United States
Short Biography
Meghan’s practice focuses on trusts and estates litigation. She litigates trust and will contests, breach of fiduciary duty cases, elder abuses cases, conservatorships, guardianships, and accounting disputes. Meghan is part of an internationally-recognized team representing clients in some of the most high-profile, celebrity, and complex trust and estate disputes. Her cases have spanned the globe, implicating the laws of Chile, Argentina, Sweden, and Switzerland.
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?
Matthew Sperry
Matthew Sperry
Partner | Katten
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family Office
Trusts & Trusteeship
Tax Advisory
Office Location
London, United Kingdom
Short Biography
Based in London, Matthew is an international private client attorney whose practice is devoted to making it easier for global ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families to access the United States, whether it be for investment, spending time in the US or utilizing US trust and other structures to advance personal goals or otherwise. He believes in using state-of-the-art trust, corporate, family office, fund and other US legal concepts to develop simple but effective wealth succession and family governance structures that minimize global tax and reporting burdens, foster privacy, protect personal wealth and advance family harmony.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Manteca (Shoreditch, London) or The Beast (Marylebone, London)
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Everyone can teach you something
What was your first job?
Clerk at a Toy Store
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Uncertain times (a familiar refrain...). Elections in the US and UK. Beneficial ownership reporting in the US. Clients continuing to seek multiple resident / citizenship options in the wake of global economic and political turmoil. A continued focus on "institutionalizing" family structures.
Matthew Mckim
Matthew Mckim
International Tax Partner | Loeb & Loeb
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family Office
Trusts: Planning
Tax Advisory
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Matthew McKim is a seasoned international tax and trust lawyer, bringing nearly twenty years of experience counseling clients on a wide range of U.S. and non-U.S. tax planning matters. Matt’s clients range from entrepreneurs wishing to establish a family office, to established global families managing their own wealth in the multibillions, to some of the world’s most renowned trust companies. Matt has extensive experience with a wide range of global family structures and common issues and prides himself on delivering efficient, strategic and results-oriented solutions for his clients. Matt has significant experience working with families in Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, PRC, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and, of course, the United States.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Paneolio in Zurich
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Always answer the phone.
What was your first job?
Stock boy at the local Dairy Queen.
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
None, but I just watched Arnold, Sly and Miss Americana on Netflix and all great!
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Resilience . . . resolute resilience.
Martin Hall
Martin Hall
Partner | Hall & Diana
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Charitable Planning and Philanthropy
Estates: Planning
Trusts & Trusteeship
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
I have recently established my own firm, HALL & DIANA LLC, in Boston. I practiced at Ropes & Gray LLP from 1985-2023 and chaired the firm's Private Client Group from 2006 until it was disbanded in 2023. I am a Fellow in ACTEC (past Chair of Charitable Planning Committee; former President of the ACTEC Foundation) and have been active in the Tax Section of the ABA (past Chair of the Estate and Gift Taxes Committee). I grew up in the UK. I hold law degrees from Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, and Boston University School of Law. I came to the United States in 1982 to take up a one-year position as a Teaching Fellow and Lecturer-in-Law at the University of Chicago Law School.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Listen
What was your first job?
Delivering newspapers at the crack of dawn
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Too many changes in 2023. I look forward to stability. In the US I expect more focus on the looming sunset of the estate and gift tax exemption.
Leo Alaniz
Leo Alaniz
Regional Managing Director - Latin America and Canada | Northern Trust
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family Governance and Business
Family Office
Trusts & Trusteeship
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Leo Alaniz is the Regional Managing Director of Latin America and Canada in the Global Family & Private Investment Offices Group at Northern Trust, responsible for providing investment and asset servicing solutions to sophisticated families in these geographies. Prior to this role, Leo was Chief Operating Officer of Investments and also previously served as Head of Strategy and Global Marketing for the Asset Servicing business unit at Northern Trust. Leo joined Northern Trust in 2011 from BMO Financial Group, where he was Vice President of Strategy and previously worked as a Consultant at McKinsey & Company. After receiving a BA in biology and international studies from Yale University, Leo attended the University of Cambridge for an MPhil in European Studies. He also received an MBA from Harvard Business School and has completed the Advanced Investments Management Program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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?
Leigh-Alexandra Basha
Leigh-Alexandra Basha
Partner | McDermott Will & Emery
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Probate
Tax Advisory
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Leigh-Alexandra Basha focuses her practice on domestic and international tax and estate planning. She counsels an affluent international client base on a wide range of sophisticated matters, including estate and trust administration, family wealth preservation, foreign trust planning, tax compliance, as well as business succession, expatriation, and pre-immigration planning. Leigh is head of the Firm’s Washington, DC, Private Client Practice Group. Leigh was an adjunct professor of wills, trusts and estates at American University Washington College of Law. She lectures and has written extensively about international tax and estate planning issues, and is editor of A Guide to International Estate Planning: Drafting, Compliance, and Administration Strategies, Second Edition
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?
Laura Parkes
Laura Parkes
Director | Crestbridge Family Office Services
JURISDICTION
Jersey, Cayman Islands, England and Wales, United States
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family Office
Fiduciary
Trusts & Trusteeship
Office Location
Jersey
Short Biography
Laura has over 20 years’ experience in the private client trust industry dealing with multi-jurisdictional fiduciary and corporate structures holding various assets including externally and client managed private companies, investment portfolios, residential and commercial property, development projects and aviation. At Crestbridge Laura is the Client Service Director lead on several family office structures administered in Jersey for clients based in Americas, Canada and UK. Laura also supports business development efforts in the Americas including working with Crestbridge Fiduciary LLC, our US joint venture partner with Willow Street to help grow our fiduciary offering to both US domestic and international clients with an US focus. Laura holds a Certificate of Offshore Administration, CMI Certificate in Management and Leadership, a full STEP member and formed part of a select group of industry individuals to be part of the first Jersey based Build Back Better programme in Sustainable Finance
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
A good Japanese restaurant for Sushi
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Don't be afraid to fail, its how you learn and grow from it that counts
What was your first job?
A Saturday job at a locksmith working as a key cutter. I was 15 years old and wanted to save up for my first motorbike
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy - how to effectively manage time and stop procrastinating
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
With the support of intermediaries, we will continue to serve wealthy families with their structuring needs ultimately providing intergeneration planning and strong corporate governance.
Laura Zwicker
Laura Zwicker
Partner/Chair Private Client Services | Greenberg Glusker
JURISDICTION
United States
TOP SPECIALISMS
Charitable Planning and Philanthropy
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Laura chairs Greenberg Glusker's private client department and her practice focuses primarily on counseling ultra-high net worth individuals and their families in connection with domestic and cross-border trust, philanthropic and tax planning issues and business succession planning. Laura also advises financial institutions with regard to fiduciary and custodial issues. Provides United States transfer tax planning for multinational families, including pre-immigration planning, lifetime planning with domestic securities, and real property, and planning, preparation and establishment of offshore and onshore multi-generational trusts and corporate structures.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Gwen
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
If it feels good, don't say it - sage advice from a senior partner when I was a first year associate
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?