HNW Divorce Litigation - Flagship Conference

Jane Keir is a partner in the family and divorce team. Described as a "class act" by her peers and colleagues alike, she is  "absolutely dedicated to getting the job done for her clients many of whom are high profile or international".

Jane acts for equal numbers of men and women and many of her clients come from across the country and abroad, as well as London.  Much of her work involves an international element and she enjoys working with other lawyers, accountants, actuaries, financial advisers, wealth managers and investigators in order to provide a thorough and comprehensive service to her clients. In addition, she has immediate recourse to all the other leading teams at Kingsley Napley LLP, including Private Client, Immigration and Real Estate.

Dawn is a partner in the trust, estate and inheritance disputes team.

Having a wealth of experience of litigation in most offshore jurisdictions, as well as in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Dawn advises all parties who may be involved in a dispute arising out of lifetime estate planning or on death, whether about trusts, foundations, professional negligence, fraud or succession. Previously a divorce lawyer, she also specialises in advising trustees and beneficiaries caught up in divorce proceedings.

Dawn uses her experience as to what can go wrong to advise trustees and protectors on their duties and how to manage and reduce their risk. Settlors are advised on how to create robust structures.

Once a problem has arisen she advises on methods to defuse contention, risk mitigation and alternative dispute resolution as well as on proceedings if necessary, ranging from consensual to the most hostile.

Dawn features in Who’s Who Legal’s list of International Private Client Lawyers as one of the ‘most highly regarded practitioners in the world’, described as ‘phenomenal’ according to their sources who praise her ‘responsiveness’.

Richard Wilson QC has a practice encompassing litigation, drafting and advisory work across a wide range of traditional and commercial chancery, with a strong emphasis on trusts and probate (both contentious and non-contentious), related company and partnership law, claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, tax, professional negligence and civil fraud.

Session: 11.20am  Attacking and Defending Trusts in Divorce: Is the Family Court Position on Trusts Correct?

Jessica is a private client partner specialising in risk and disputes in relation to trusts and estates.

Jessica has accrued extensive trust litigation experience both in England and offshore. Her cases have included both seeking and defending the removal of trustees, protectors and executors; rectification and variation of trusts; setting aside and defending trusts on the basis of sham allegations; challenging trustees’ decisions and advising trustees on making decisions in contentious circumstances; challenging trustees’ fees; claims for breach of fiduciary duty; and associated professional negligence proceedings against tax and legal advisors. 

Equally, Jessica frequently advises on probate and estate disputes, including invalidity claims, capacity and construction issues, as well as claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975.

Jessica has also built up particular expertise in advising trustees and beneficiaries on issues of trust law in the context of divorce proceedings – both in relation to proceedings in the Family Division and in the corresponding offshore trust jurisdictions. 

Alexander Troller is a partner at LALIVE. He specialises in civil litigation, with a particular focus on advising private clients on estate and inheritance disputes, including high net worth divorce proceedings and financial matters. His experience in this area has earned him recognition as a leading private client practitioner by Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal.

I am an insolvency practitioner with 12 years’ experience of dealing with complex, contentious assignments; with an emphasis on fraud investigation, identification of assets, tracing exercises, enforcement of judgments and recovery of assets for those who have suffered financial loss or have a claim against another party.

I focus on assisting beneficiaries, trustees and representatives in matrimonial, family, trust and probate disputes. I work to find strategies that ensure the most appropriate action is taken in order to achieve maximum recovery. I use the Insolvency Act, along with other civil legislation, such as the use of liquidations, bankruptcies and court appointed receiverships, as a tool to assist with investigation, asset tracing and recovery processes.

Claire is a partner in the divorce and family team.

She brings commitment, energy, strong technical expertise and sound judgement to all her work, spanning the full range of family law issues. Claire goes the extra mile for her clients with whom she has solid relationships.

Whether working with domestic or international clients, she deals with complex financial claims, children issues, pre and postnuptial agreements and cohabitant disputes and has extensive experience advising on cases involving trusts.

Her clients are in commerce, finance and tech, professionals, families with inherited wealth and those in the public eye. Whilst being highly experienced in difficult litigation she also has a busy dispute-resolution practice as a collaborative lawyer and mediator.

She has acted for (and for the spouses of) trustees, doctors, lawyers, hedge fund managers, members of aristocracy and people in the public eye. With clients involved in anything from sports and retail to pharmaceuticals and technology, Claire is well versed in dealing with clients holding senior positions in many different sectors.

Elizabeth specialises in international contentious trust, probate and succession disputes, high-value family disputes and proceedings in the Court of Protection.

Elizabeth acts for a wide range of UK and international clients including multinational corporations, trust companies, private companies and a diverse spectrum of high-net-worth individuals.

She has substantial experience as a litigator in the UK courts and in foreign courts, including Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands and has particular expertise in resolving complex and multi-jurisdictional disputes involving the trustees, beneficiaries and protectors of English and offshore family trusts.

Elizabeth has also acted for numerous clients in sensitive and highly confidential disputes in the Court of Protection.

Katie has specialised in family law since 2007. Katie joined Alexiou Fisher Philipps in 2011 from a well-known media firm, rising rapidly to become the firm’s first promotion to the partnership in over ten years.

Her experience allows her to offer advice across the full spectrum of family law but she has developed a strong practice in international child relocation cases and disputes involving arrangements for children, including surrogacy cases.

Katie advises on all issues arising from relationship breakdown, including divorce and finances (often with an international element) co-habitation between unmarried couples and the drafting and negotiating of pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements.

Bill Hewlett has worked for 20 years as a child consultant and a mediator and has managed and supervised the clinical practice of mediators across six Family Relationship Centres in Sydney, Australia. In response to the current challenges of the UK family law system, Bill has developed an innovative and effective model of practice for working with parents who are in conflict with each other. When families are going through traumatic change, the children can respond by being fearful that their parents would not be able to collaborate quickly and effectively to keep them safe. Bill’s focus is to assist the parents to form an amicable, cooperative and collaborative parental alliance with each other, thereby reducing any psychological and developmental load that the children may be carrying.

Bill trains practitioners in the UK, Hong Kong and Australia and often presents at international conferences and is a published author     

Billhewlett.uk

Katherine specialises in finances arising out of divorce and private children law matters. She has a wide financial practice, which covers cases under the Matrimonial Causes Act, Schedule 1 of the Children Act, TOLATA and those under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act. Her private children practice encompasses all areas with a particular expertise in cases involving leave to remove either internally or internationally and child abduction.

She was Junior Counsel in the Supreme Court case of Mills v Mills [2018] 4 All ER 612 [2018] UKSC 38. She has appeared in all levels of court in the UK and has been ranked in the legal directories since 2017.

Ben advises on all aspects of family law including: children, divorce/civil partnership, co-habitation, pre/post nuptial agreements, complex financial disputes and jurisdictional issues. He has dealt with a number of cases involving the relocation of children and on matters involving same-sex parents. A significant number of his cases have an international element.

Ben read law at Merton College, Oxford. He trained at Mishcon de Reya and joined Payne Hicks Beach on qualification in 2008.  He was promoted to senior associate in 2015 and partner in 2018

Between 2009 and 2013 Ben delivered a legal aid and legal skills training project at the National University of Rwanda. When able, he assists/advises students at BPP Law School’s Pro Bono Clinic (Family).

Giles specialises in trusts, company and fiduciary obligations litigation, both in London and offshore, as well as associated professional negligence and fraud work.  He also acts in high value financial remedy actions in the Family Division. 

Giles is ranked in Band 1 for all of Traditional Chancery, Commercial Chancery, Offshore, Trusts and Family/Matrimonial: Trusts/Tax Experts in Chambers & Partners being described as “outstanding – incredibly technically able and on top of his game, but very easy to work with.”  He is also recommended in Legal 500 for Private Client: Trusts and Probate ("A silk in all but name - he is so clever and his tactics are fantastic"), for Company law ("a great strategist ") and for Offshore work (“Exceptionally good: clients get a QC quality”).

Andreas is a partner in Carey Olsen's trusts and private wealth and litigation teams. He specialises in the court-related aspects of the trusts and private wealth team's practice and has acted in numerous cases involving allegations of breach of trust, fraud and professional negligence, both for plaintiffs and defendants.  He also has experience of mediation of such disputes.

He is also regularly involved in applications by trustees for administrative directions, applications by trustees and beneficiaries for relief on grounds of mistake, applications for orders approving compromises of disputes on behalf of minor, unborn and unascertained beneficiaries and applications for rectification of trust instruments.

In addition, he practises all other aspects of Jersey commercial litigation, including disputes concerning investment funds and Jersey companies, contractual disputes and Jersey intellectual property rights.  

Mark is a Partner in the Family Department and is also the firm’s finance partner.

He joined the Family Department on qualification in 1994 quickly progressing to partner.

Mark specialises in all areas of family law with a specific focus on high profile and high net worth divorce and finance cases, as well as complex cases involving overseas assets and trusts.  He has acted for celebrities and high net worth individuals before the Central Family Court and the High Court with excellent results.

Mark sets out to achieve the very best for his clients and has earned himself a reputation as a tough negotiator both in and out the Court forum. He regularly conducts round table meetings bringing finance cases to  a swift and cost-effective conclusion as an alternative to Court Hearings.

His work involves multi-jurisdictional divorce and children cases, with particular emphasis on Europe and the middle-east. He has successfully represented clients in all areas including under the new Child Arrangements Programme.