Luca Parrott

Luca advises clients on all aspects of tax, including corporate tax, establishing and structuring investment funds, investor representation and reorganisations. She joined Macfarlanes as a Trainee and qualified into the Tax and Reward team in 2021. 

What do you enjoy about the work that you do?

People might be surprised by how creative tax can be. Every investment or deal is different, so you’re constantly mapping out the steps, deciding how it should be documented, and working out how best to explain it to clients who might not have a technical tax (or even a legal) background. That means you have to be creative not just in problem-solving, but in how you communicate your advice clearly and effectively.

Tell us about how you work with clients?

You’re always making sure that clients don’t get lost in technical detail, so we always start with the headline – what you need to do to solve the issue at hand – and then provide the explanation behind it. There’s no fence-sitting. We’re commercially focused, so we’re very good at spotting all of the non-legal or non-tax issues that would influence how clients put our advice into practice. Clients really value that. 

How did you end up specialising in tax?

It was a bit of a happy accident. When I was doing my vacation scheme, I spent a week in the Tax team and a Senior Associate – who’s now a Partner in the team – spent an hour talking me through the tax points, including drawing pictures on the board to illustrate the structure, and I thought: “This is really interesting. If I get in, I'll give this a go." Since joining, that early experience has lived up to its promise. There’s not a single person in my team who I couldn't go to with a question, or to ask for advice. 

You were involved in launching the Macfarlanes Legal Academy. How did that come about?

When I got involved, it was a pilot project, but its goals were clear. The idea was to work with sixth formers from state schools in areas where younger people wouldn’t necessarily have been exposed to a career in law. I reached out to my old school in Crawley, where law had never been an option, and got to work with them. One of the people I mentored there actually ended up doing a law degree, having never previously thought about a career in law at all. It is really important to me to work for a firm where you have the opportunity to give back.