What has been the highlight of your practice over the past 12 months?

Over the past 12 months I have resolved some fascinating and very challenging cases out of court, much to the clients' satisfaction of having avoided a long and public family dispute, but unfortunately this means I cannot say anything about them! Particular highlights have included a number of cases where I have been working with our private client and litigation colleagues around the world, from our offices in California to Asia and also back in Europe (and in one case this involved joining up a team in the US, Hong Kong and Switzerland).

What advice would you give rising stars/new lawyers in the private client world?

If you are on the private client advisery side, try to get some trusts and estates litigation experience. It will hugely improve your skills and advice to clients in both areas.

Vice versa, trusts and estates litigators should make sure they have some experience of advisery work and setting up structures, so that they understand how and why they are set up in different ways, which can be very relevant when litigating or preventing litigation over a trust.

What is your favourite quote?

"The floggings will continue until morale improves". Attributed to Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty I think, but I had it on a poster I brought back from a visit to a prison in Australia. It was framed and hung in my office, which may have caused some concern for the trainees who sat with me.

Where have you seen growth in your practice over the last year?

A significant number of cases in the last 12 months involve families in Asia. And these have been coming from a wide range of jurisdictions, not just the usual - Hong Kong and Singapore. I think this is partly a reflection of us having significant offices in the region with local qualified lawyers and also that it is a region of the world that has been growing and has been less adversely affected by the pandemic in terms of economic activity than certain other parts of the world have been.

Can you identify any new areas you have developed within your practice to further benefit your clients?

The possibility of trusts disputes being submitted to arbitration (ad hoc or mandatory) is an area I have been promoting by speaking at conferences and working with arbitration bodies (for example the ICC) and trustees. Many clients – whether its families or trustees - are interested in how to avoid court processes and deal with disputes more quickly and confidentially. It's an area that raises various legal and practical questions and so always stimulates a lively debate amongst trust lawyers and professionals!

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Always look on the bright side, even if a pandemic ever comes along.

What has been the highlight of your practice over the past 12 months?

Seeing clients come to us with a very broad brief rather than asking narrow questions.

How did you get into private client?

I started my legal life at Slaughter and May and got a taste for private client work with a tax case which went to the Special Commissioners. I was hooked! Which was lucky, as I was close to packing it all in and becoming a teacher!

What advice would you give rising stars/new lawyers in the private client world?

Do the work you enjoy most with the professionals you like most, and everything else will follow.

What is your favourite quote?

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit” [Harry S Truman]

Do you have any outside interests or hobbies?

I enjoy running (slowly!) and photography (I like to think I show promise….). I enjoy sports but have to re-think now my teenage sons can beat me.

When the restaurants reopen, where would you like to go?

Anywhere, so long as it’s with good friends.

What do you think will be the biggest three challenges in your practice for the next 12 months?

1. Mentoring juniors in a virtual environment.
2. Deciding whether face-to-fact meeting and international travel is safe as (hopefully) the world begins to return to some kind of normal. We will have to balance the interests of clients and duty of care to other employees.
3. Learning to make the London Underground (which is noisy and smelly) part of my everyday life again.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Everyone makes mistakes. It’s how you respond to them, and learn from them, which defines you.

What are three top tips for dealing with your clients remotely?

1. Persuade them to use video technology. It makes a difference to the rapport you can establish.
2. Pace meetings. You wouldn’t expect to have a 3 hour meeting in person without comfort breaks and food; factor these into virtual meetings. The worst decisions are made on low blood sugar!
3. Remain in contact. It may be just to drop them an email asking how they are. They will be grateful you are thinking of them.

What has been the highlight of your practice over the past 12 months?

The sheer variety of work – moving between two Variation of Trust Act applications, a tax mediation with HMRC, a piece of difficult trust litigation, estate planning and other aspects for international families and individuals has been challenging and interesting.

How did you get into private client?

I loved tax and dealing with people. At Freshfields, I wanted to have a career which combined both of these and this career did that for me.

What advice would you give rising stars/new lawyers in the private client world?

I am not sure I can – if you like people and problem-solving, you will find your niche and everyone has their own style.

What is your favourite quote?

“But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tomb." George Eliot.

Do you have any outside interests or hobbies?

My interests are my family, history and gardening at our house in France. I’m a church warden and a trustee of lots of charitable trusts outside of work.

When the restaurants reopen, where would you like to go?

We missed having a large 40th wedding anniversary this year – so we are going to The Goring to celebrate.

What is the main area of growth you predict for the next 12 months?

Continuing increase of work on residence for individuals, trusts and companies both because of involuntary change (pandemic restrictions) and voluntary change (response to the pandemic), clients wishing to simplify affairs and to bring long-running projects to a conclusion (again a pandemic catalyst), and tax planning triggered by tax changes to meet the costs of the pandemic.

What do you think will be the biggest three challenges in your practice for the next 12 months?

Keeping in touch with clients, contacts and colleagues if remote working continues, then, if restrictions ease, balancing the team’s agile working wishes and needs with providing client services, and continuing to cope with tax and regulatory changes.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

You will never stop learning.

What has been the highlight of your practice over the past 12 months?

A really big highlight has been working seamlessly with our HK private wealth colleagues. We’re seeing a large uptick in litigation for HK based clients across various offshore jurisdictions. One of the things we’ve done really well over the past 3 years at Stephenson Harwood has become a truly global practice.

How did you get into private client?

I was a litigator many years ago at Allen & Overy and worked with Robert Hunter – which inevitably meant I did private client trust and fraud litigation!

What advice would you give rising stars/new lawyers in the private client world?

Keep a sense of humour and always ensure that you are on top of recent legal developments.

What is your favourite quote?

"This too shall pass."

Do you have any outside interests or hobbies?

Keeping fit- and juggling my family!

When the restaurants reopen, where would you like to go?

Sticks & Sushi, Kings Road with my children and Scott’s with a group of girlfriends.

Where have you seen growth in your practice over the last year?

Over the last 12 months I have seen a significant uptick in trustees needing assistance to resolve complicated tax issues which have arisen because of negligent tax advice being provided by lawyers and/or accountants. This has resulted in consideration of applications to set aside the transactions giving rise to the tax consequences and negligence claims against the advisors. I have also become involved in a number of Hong Kong trust disputes, working alongside Hong Kong solicitors and counsel to set the strategy in those cases.

What do you think will be the biggest three challenges in your practice for the next 12 months?

The greatest challenge to all global elite members is the current restrictions on travel which are unlikely to lift until the later part of 2021. Otherwise, whilst I can foresee the clients we act for facing a number of challenges arising out of ever increasing geopolitical risks and the inevitable tax rises which will be brought in to pay for the Covid pandemic, such challenges will lead to increased work for those who advise them.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Not to have children if home schooling is going to continue to be a part of everyday life! More seriously, to be flexible and not to be overly concerned with mapping out your future career.

What has been the highlight of your practice over the past 12 months?

High profile litigation in Bermuda concerning the validity of certain purpose trusts. Recent summary judgment on a $500m claim in relation to one of the trusts has just been overturned on appeal, but we applied for leave to appeal to the Privy Council. It is interesting, dealing with questions of whether powers in a trust are to be interpreted to reference to the beneficial core, substratum or whether the words in a trust deed simply mean what they say regardless of the original intention, purpose and who it was set up for.

How did you get into private client?

I was an associate at Macfarlanes, where I was involved fairly early in my career in a case for Kodan Trust in Bermuda. The client was Alec Anderson of Conyers and it was to do with an Ecuadorian fruit and shipping family, with litigation in London. It was fascinating and after that, I was hooked- I wanted to deal with litigation.

What advice would you give rising stars/new lawyers in the private client world?

Represent your client's interests faithfully and uncompromisingly, but always be respectful of the professional relationships you develop with others. Those relationships will sustain your practice in the future and help you to better serve your clients.

What is your favourite quote?

"Once, during Prohibition, I survived for days on only food and water!" William Claude Fields.

Do you have any outside interests or hobbies?

Farming. Literature. Theatre. Concerts. Environmental issues, including energy systems. Cycling.

When the restaurants reopen, where would you like to go?

Spring at Somerset House, London.

Where have you seen growth in your practice over the last year?

Asset tracing and recovery litigation, including trust busting, inspired by (a) Covid lockdown-related divorces and (b) the growing jurisprudence around "illusory trusts".

Can you identify any new areas you have developed within your practice to further benefit your clients?

For those clients involved in family owned companies, and for family offices that invest via corporate acquisitions, there is enormous momentum behind the ESG movement and more and more enterprises and governments are waking up to the challenges of implementing sustainable, socially responsible and environmentally sound governance in traditional settings. This is an area we see more and more activity around. In pure litigation terms, we now routinely embed project management resource into our litigation teams, to reduce cost for clients, improve efficiencies and give better support for our lawyers.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Learn to touch type properly, you idiot.