Private Wealth Disputes

Acting for a court appointed administrator of the estate of a deceased UHNW individual involving multiple claims brought by and against the estate. With the solvency of the estate dependent on the outcome of so many moving parts, we worked closely alongside our tax and probate teams to resolve the claims and progress administration of the estate. We successfully secured costs protection for the administrator for all claims before assisting the administrator in negotiating a settlement of the highest value claim and a related claim by mediation. We then represented the administrator in an opposed application to obtain the court’s blessing of the settlement and successfully negotiated settlement of that application.

Representing the offshore trustee in a highly contentious blessing application in relation to the restructuring of multiple offshore trusts involving the proposed distribution of the entire corpus of the trusts. Our work, which spanned multiple jurisdictions, involved bringing injunctive proceedings, addressing multiple disclosure applications, and an interim hearing on the validity of the appointment of a Protector.

A cross jurisdictional breach of trust claim in relation to the mismanagement of trust assets, including tracing and seeking recovery of assets allegedly distributed by trustees in breach of trust (including cryptocurrency).

Advising the family office of an UHNWI in a contested rent review of an investment property in Central London with a value of circa £100m. As well as concluding the rent review in the client’s favour, we also helped them to re-gear the lease and resolve a number of outstanding breaches of the tenant’s covenants.

Advising trustees in divorce proceedings brought by the wife of a HNW beneficiary to a trust. The wife sought to join the trustees to proceedings and made claims against trust assets which the trustees robustly defended.

Acting for a HNW client based overseas in respect of divorce and financial proceedings in England. This complex case involved assets in multiple jurisdictions and held via company structures. The case required expert evidence in respect of valuing assets and businesses and tax advice for restructuring.

Resolving long-running HMRC dispute regarding an individual’s acquisition of a domicile of choice in the UK. As well as resolving the dispute, this also resulted in HMRC repaying a six-figure sum in previously overpaid tax.

Advising Jersey trustees on the UK tax consequences of a possible Hastings Bass application, itself resulting from a potential failure to recognise the matching of relevant income against past distributions to beneficiaries, and protecting a related professional negligence claim.

Successfully defeating an HMRC argument that our client was a quasi-transferor of an offshore pension for transfer-of-assets-abroad purposes.

A highly contested dissolution of a farming partnership, involving valuable assets (over 1,000 acres of land and buildings, Agricultural Holdings Act tenancies, and strategic development land) with multi-party interests, complex ownership and tax issues.

Successfully obtaining rectification of a deed of appointment in relation to one of south Oxfordshire’s most valuable landed estates, in a bitterly opposed application. The deed inadvertently appointed the estate to a distant relative of the settlor rather than the settlor’s grandson as had been intended. The recipient of the unintended appointment denied an error had been made and further defended the application on the grounds of proprietary estoppel (Fielden v Christie-Miller [2015] EWHC 87 (Ch)).

Acting for siblings (partners and will trustees) in negotiating arrangements for buyout of their shares of a family business and winding up of the original partnership. This highly contentious and hard fought matter was resolved through negotiation with the agreed terms including multiple transfers, forward looking arrangements and overage to preserve the interest of the bought out siblings in future development arrangements.

Advising a well-known politician on a potential defamation claim against a national newspaper.

Acting for an individual activist investment professional on a complex dispute concerning the ownership of an investment fund in the activist shareholder space.

Advising a number of siblings in multi-jurisdictional proceedings against another sibling for breaches of fiduciary duty arising out of his dealings with partnership and trust assets.