Burges Salmon shortlisted in two categories at The Legal Business Awards 2023

Independent UK law firm Burges Salmon is pleased to announce that it has been named as finalist in the ‘Legal Technology Team of the Year’ and ‘Private Client Team of the Year’ categories at The Legal Business Awards 2023.

The 26th annual Legal Business Awards celebrates the very best in the legal profession and is the most prestigious event in the legal calendar.

Details of the firm’s two nominations are:

Legal Technology Team of the Year

This category recognises those in the legal sector that have pushed through innovation and secured competitive advantage for their business. Important factors include fresh approaches in creating and delivering legal products, including utilising technology and new business models.

Burges Salmon’s Innovation team, which has received this shortlisting, is a multi-disciplinary team comprising innovation and technology specialists from varied backgrounds. Aligned with the firm’s strategic focus, it uses its skills to uncover and understand pain points, creating innovative solutions to improve client service delivery. The team is involved in a range of work, focusing on the following four quadrants:

1. Client solutions – collaborating with lawyers and clients to develop valuable solutions/products.

2. Efficiency & productivity – leveraging a portfolio of intelligent technology solutions to assist with client service delivery.

3. Knowledge & culture – promoting innovation and technology knowledge to embed innovation into the firm's culture.

4. Research & Development – collaboration and R&D initiatives.

Over the last year, the firm’s Innovation team has delivered an impressive number of initiatives across the quadrants including:

• Announcing an exciting collaboration with client Affinity Water to develop a Digital Compliance Tool
• Hosting the firm’s annual innovation and technology week (B-Innovative Week) with virtual and in-person talks, webinars and hands-on live sessions
• Supporting the firm’s Pension’s team in developing and enhancing a Pension Schemes ESG Tool.

Private Client Team of the Year

This award recognises the top private client teams in the country, either offshore or onshore, handling high-value work in the areas of estates, charities, family, contentious and non-contentious trusts and probate, as well as personal tax, particularly to high-net-worth individuals and families.

Burges Salmon’s Private Client team, which is one of the largest dedicated teams in the UK and is recognised nationally and internationally, has been shortlisted in this category having acted on some of the sector’s highest value and most complicated succession, tax planning and trust restructuring work over the past year.

The team works with a wide variety of clients including entrepreneurs, landowners, Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI), High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI), trustees and family offices, both onshore and offshore. It has an expert pool of knowledge, helping its clients to mitigate tax, structure their affairs, preserve their property and pass it on to their successors, including advice on divorce and nuptial agreements. The team has extensive experience of cross-border estate and succession planning, international tax and property structuring, and settling family disputes. It also advises global financial institutions on the provision of trust and tax planning services.

Over the past year:

• Multiple clients continued to use the team’s innovative ResiCheck App developed in collaboration with the Innovation team, which was also demonstrated to some of the world’s leading private banks and overseas law firms.
• The team launched ‘Turning good into great: Insights into effective philanthropy’, sharing practical steps for philanthropists to optimise the effectiveness of their philanthropy.
• The team launched ‘Getting to Net Zero: The role of rural land’, which explores how Net Zero ambitions can be practically achieved and financed.

Roger Bull, Burges Salmon’s Managing Partner, says: “The ability to provide and collaborate with our clients on the provision of innovative legal solutions is one of the core components of Burges Salmon’s strategy and Private Wealth is one of the firm’s key areas of growth. It is therefore fantastic to be named as a finalist in these two important areas and these nominations reflect our unrelenting drive to provide our clients with the highest levels of service excellence.”

The Legal Business Awards 2023 take place at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Tuesday 19 September 2023.