Private Client Advisory and Litigation Forum: Paris

Stella began her career with NatWest Bank, as a graduate trainee in 1991. She quickly moved into the Coutts private banking and trust subsidiary in Jersey before moving to Geneva in 1996. She has a wide range of experience of trust and company management including fine art, bloodstock, commercial and residential property, private equity, family offices and private trust companies.

Stella is a law graduate of King’s College, London (LLB Hons), an associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (ACIB) and a Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). Stella is a much sought after speaker at trust conferences and is a regular tutor for the STEP Foundation and diploma courses. She is also on the editorial committee of Trusts & Trustees publication (Italian Version).

Rupert Ticehurst is head of dispute resolution at Maurice Turnor Gardner. He joined Maurice Turnor Gardner LLP in January 2019 and heads the firm’s Dispute Resolution team. His practice covers trust, probate and commercial litigation as well as private client advisory work. 

Clare specialises in succession planning and related legal and tax matters for multi-generational families and their family offices.

She works alongside some of the world’s leading private businesses and her practice focuses on how to help individuals developing their succession planning strategy and designing bespoke asset holding and wealth management structures including PTCs, limited partnership structures and foundations. Clare has particular experience of advising and supporting families on implementing family and corporate governance frameworks to support successful wealth transition. She also supports clients in developing their philanthropic strategy to enable greater and more effective wealth distribution.

Clare is recognised for her work having won multiple awards from the leading private wealth award bodies.

Prior to joining the firm, Clare was a Partner at PwC and also worked at Barclays Wealth, providing her with a real breadth of experience and commercial insight across the private client sector.

Jo qualified as a solicitor of England and Wales in 2008, working as a private client solicitor in the UK before beginning her trust career at Summit Trust International SA in Geneva in 2011. Jo has a wide range of experience in trust and company management, providing bespoke private client trusteeship to ultra-high value, complex international trust structures, within which an array of real assets are managed, including fine art, vintage cars, shipping fleets, yachts, private equity, operating businesses and commercial and residential property. Jo is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). In 2018 and 2020, Jo won Trustee of the Year at the Citywealth Magic Circle Awards. Jo speaks English and French.

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. 

John co-founded Spring Equity Partners after a 12-year career at Mirabaud Group, where he served as Executive Director.

Committed to ensuring that his clients’ portfolios are managed by people who think like principals, not agents. John is a seasoned investor, having been a member of the Mirabaud Group’s Investment committee for many years. He led the investment offering for the UK Market and headed the Geneva-based UK Desk. Prior to joining Mirabaud, he worked for an alternative investment firm in New York focusing on distressed and macro strategies.

A passionate philosopher, John obtained an MA in Classics from Cambridge and read Philosophy at the Sorbonne (Paris-I). He lives in Geneva with his wife and two children.

Areas of Expertise

Private Client Tax Services; Foreign Domiciliary Taxation - Remittance Basis, Residence and Domicile; International Private Client Tax Planning; Trust and Charity Formation, Administration and Accounting; International Trust Planning; Residential Property Taxation; Capital Gains Tax Planning; Inheritance Tax, Estate and Succession Planning; Tax Compliance; HMRC Investigations.

Experience

Anita joined Evelyn Partners (formerly Smith and Williamson) as a Partner in May 2017 following 16 years at another leading Private Client Firm. Before that, she worked at a Private Bank, having trained within the Big Four. Anita has over 25 years’ tax experience, over 20 of which have been in the Private Client sector.

Anita has a varied client base made up of international families, non-domiciled individuals, clients with residency issues, trusts, UK based high net-worth individuals and executives. Anita assists clients with their tax compliance, HMRC investigations and to fulfill their regulatory obligations as well as advising on strategic tax matters such as domicile, residence, family wealth, trusts and succession.

Notable client work and achievements

Advising in relation to the reorganisation of a highly complex high value structure with multiple trusts and companies spanning five jurisdictions.

Advising the executives of a multi-jurisdictional corporate group in relation to a global restructuring of the business.

Assisting multiple clients with complex tax investigations concerning domicile, residence, non-UK estates and trusts and other domestic and international aspects.

Extensive experience in advising Formula 1 motor sport professionals and artists in relation to both UK and international issues.

Professional qualifications/memberships

Anita is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers and a Freeman of the City of London.

Alex is a founding partner in 2001 of Hughes Fowler Carruthers, the top tier niche family law practice. Alex specialises in English family law, complex divorce, and financial work and children’s work, in particular international cases. His clients are high net worth individuals with complex legal issues including trusts and jurisdictional disputes, Alex in featured in Spears’ Family Law Index’s ‘Top Recommended Family Lawyers’ list and is also listed in Tatler Address Book’s advisory as one of the leading family lawyers in their trusted network of influential and elite private client experts with “gilt-edged” expertise. He regularly lectures on the interface between divorce and trusts. He is highly recommended by peer review publications and has been involved in a number of high profile and ground-breaking legal cases. Alex has been a regular in Chambers’ band 1 for many years. Chambers UK 2023 quotes a contributor as stating that "He is sharp, incisive and astute; he is tactically brilliant and extremely patient.".

Caroline has extensive experience across the whole spectrum of family law work, particularly in relation to complex financial disputes arising on divorce and separation, disputes involving children and the drafting and negotiation of pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements.

Caroline joined Hughes Fowler Carruthers in 2008, rising rapidly to become the firm’s first promotion to the partnership in over ten years.

She joined from international law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where she was a tax lawyer. During her time at Freshfields, Caroline worked on a wide range of cross-border, commercial transactions, involving both corporate clients and major financial institutions.

Since joining Hughes Fowler Carruthers in 2008, Caroline has worked on a number of reported cases and has built up extensive experience across the whole spectrum of family law work, in particular in relation to complex financial disputes arising on divorce and separation, disputes involving children and the drafting and negotiation of pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements.

I’m a Partner of Mourant Ozannes (Guernsey) LLP in our Guernsey Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice. I specialise in complex commercial and trust litigation, and provide advice to a range of financial institutions and fiduciaries, particularly in multi-jurisdictional disputes.

Having obtained diplomas in compliance and anti-money laundering, my focus is often on regulatory and compliance matters. I regularly advise on routine and non-routine matters, including liaising with the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, the police and the Financial Investigation Unit.

I also have expertise in relation to cross-border assistance in tax and money-laundering issues.

I joined Mourant Ozannes in January 2002 and was called to the Guernsey Bar in 2005.

Joe has over 30 years’ experience in the finance industry, most of it as a professional trustee. His own experience has given him unique insight into the workings of trust companies and their clients.