Virtual

Trustees and Divorce: Navigating Stormy Waters

20 May 2020

Location: 12.00pm - 1.00pm Virtual Event (Zoom)
Members: £25+VAT - Book by 20 May

Highlights

Debt, death and divorce: often grimly cited as the estate agent’s best friends, they are also three main harbingers of trust litigation.

The last of these can be particularly troublesome for trustees, who can find themselves in a difficult position when a beneficiary (or beneficiaries) of a discretionary trust divorce, especially when it is taking place in the English courts. There are many reasons why alarm bells start ringing for a trustee in such cases.

Find out how to navigate the stormy waters in a 1 hour update featuring;

Family Law Perspective - Mark Harper & Alex Carruthers 

Trustee Perspective - Clare Usher Wilson 

Chancery Perspective - Bajul Shah & Alina Gerasimenko

Read Macfarlanes article on these issues in advance

Jonathan Arr
Partner
Macfarlanes

Jonathan specialises in international contentious trust, probate and succession disputes, high-value family disputes and commercial litigation.

The clients for whom he acts range from multinational corporations, international private wealth managers and trust companies through to a diverse spectrum of high-net-worth individuals both from the UK and from around the world, including South America, Europe and the Middle East.

Jonathan is an experienced litigator in both the UK courts and foreign courts, including Singapore, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, BVI, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Mauritius. He acts on the full range of matters affecting private clients including breach of trust claims, fraud claims, blessing applications, challenges to wills, Inheritance Act claims, art and cultural property disputes and applications to deal with mistaken advice or flawed decisions by way of rectification or revocation. He has particular expertise resolving difficult and long-running disputes between beneficiaries of both English and offshore family trusts owning large multinational businesses.

As well as acting in court proceedings, he has also advised clients in numerous successful large-scale settlement negotiations and mediations, particularly in the context of family disputes. Jonathan is a member of the Association of Contentious Trusts and Probate Specialists.

Jonathan also has substantial expertise in high-value employment law and commercial disputes, acting for financial institutions, in particular, in the High Court and employment tribunals.


Jonathan Arr
Jonathan Arr Partner
Macfarlanes
Clare Usher-Wilson
Deputy Managing Director
Summit Trust International

Clare is a graduate of History and Politics (BA Hons) at Royal Holloway College, University of London. She began her trust career in Guernsey in 1998 and then moved to Liechtenstein, before settling in Geneva in 2004. Clare has a wide range of experience in trust and company management, including private trust companies, charitable trusts and employee benefits trusts, within which a wide range of assets are managed, including fine art and automobile collections, private equity and commercial and residential property. Clare manages an administration team that is focused on larger, more complex structures where a family office or private investment office is involved. In May 2006, Clare was awarded the Society of Trust and Estate Practictioners (STEP) Suisse-Romand prize for excellence in the Foundation Certificate. Clare is on the executive committee for the STEP Suisse-Romande Association.


Clare Usher-Wilson
Clare Usher-Wilson Deputy Managing Director
Summit Trust International
Mark Harper
Partner
Hughes Fowler Carruthers

Mark focuses on divorce and family law, in particular international cases and those involving trusts. He also deals with pre-nuptial and pre-civil partnership agreements.

Mark also acts in international children’s cases, including relocation cases. His Court of Appeal case of K v K helped to shape the law on relocation. In S v S, Mark achieved relocation but also change of primary carer for the children.

Mark was ranked one of the top ten UK family lawyers in Spear’s Wealth Managements’ Family law index 2017, 2018, and 2019 and was described as “without doubt the best technician in London”.

He was also ranked in The Lawyer’s ‘Hot 100 lawyers’ under Family and Private Client and is listed among the Top 10 Family & Matrimonial Lawyers in Citywealth’s Leaders List and Spear’s Family Law Index’s ‘Top Flight Family Lawyers’. Mark 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.

Mark is the co-author of three leading textbooks on family law: International Trust and Divorce Litigation (Third Edition), Same Sex Marriage and Civil Partnership – The New Law, and Model Letters for Family Lawyers, all published by Jordans. Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division, in a review of International Trust and Divorce Litigation said “This is a book which needs to be in the bookcase and in the briefcase of everyone involved on a divorce case with a trust element”.

Mark is a regular commentator on family law issues in the press and TV, having appeared on BBC News and Radio 4’s Today programme. He regularly lectures in England and in offshore jurisdictions on a broad range of family law issues, especially trusts on divorce and pre-nuptial agreements, and was the European Chapter President of the International Academy of Family Lawyers between 2014 and 2016.


Mark Harper
Mark Harper Partner
Hughes Fowler Carruthers
Elizabeth Doherty
Partner
Macfarlanes

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.


Elizabeth Doherty
Elizabeth Doherty Partner
Macfarlanes
Alex Carruthers
Partner
Hughes Fowler Carruthers

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.".


Alex Carruthers
Alex Carruthers Partner
Hughes Fowler Carruthers
Alina Gerasimenko
Barrister
XXIV Old Buildings

Alina Gerasimenko
Alina Gerasimenko Barrister
XXIV Old Buildings
Bajul Shah
Barrister
XXIV Old Buildings

Bajul Shah
Bajul Shah Barrister
XXIV Old Buildings

Agenda

11.55am
Audience Log on
12.00pm
Chair's Opening Remarks
Speakers:
Jonathan Arr - Partner - Macfarlanes
Elizabeth Doherty - Partner - Macfarlanes
12.05pm
Family Lawyer Perspective
Speakers:
Mark Harper - Partner - Hughes Fowler Carruthers
Alex Carruthers - Partner - Hughes Fowler Carruthers
12.15pm
Trustee Perspective
Speakers:
Clare Usher-Wilson - Deputy Managing Director - Summit Trust International
12.25pm
Chancery Perspective
Speakers:
Bajul Shah - Barrister - XXIV Old Buildings
Alina Gerasimenko - Barrister - XXIV Old Buildings
12.35pm
Panel Session & Q&A
Speakers:
Jonathan Arr - Partner - Macfarlanes
Clare Usher-Wilson - Deputy Managing Director - Summit Trust International
Mark Harper - Partner - Hughes Fowler Carruthers
Elizabeth Doherty - Partner - Macfarlanes
Alex Carruthers - Partner - Hughes Fowler Carruthers
12.55pm
Chair's Closing Remarks
1.00pm
End of Event

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