Paul advises on matters of governance, succession, tax, trust law and trust litigation. He has a particular focus on matters involving complex, cross-border structures.
His clients include individuals, family offices, family-owned businesses, trustees and financial institutions, many of whom do not have a significant connection with the UK.
His practice covers:
- Governance: Advising trustees and protectors on good governance practices and directors of private and public companies on matters of corporate governance. He has a particular focus on family-owned businesses and how to divide control between owners, officeholders and other stakeholders.
- Succession: Advising clients on how to put in place successful global succession plans. He assists trustees, directors and family offices in how to implement them.
- Trust law and trust litigation: Advising on trustee decision-making and matters of trust administration in both contentious and non-contentious situations.
- Tax: Advising on UK tax issues involving non-UK resident trusts and other structures as well as the interaction of the UK tax regime with other tax regimes (such as the US). He assists taxpayers and fellow professionals with the conduct of HMRC investigations.
Paul was named a Rising Star in The Legal 500 2024 directory for Private Client - Personal Tax, Trusts and Probate.
Experience
- Advising on the settlement of a long-running dispute between the trustees and beneficiaries of a non-UK trust structure worth in excess of £5 billion.
- Assisting a family office with the on-going administration of a family trust structure spanning seven jurisdictions and worth in excess of £1.5 billion.
- Designing the successful partition of a complex non-UK trust structure between three main family branches. This matter was complicated by both the fact that the non-UK trust structure owned a significant multi-national business and the contentious family context.
- Advising a non-UK charity in their capacity as the beneficiary of a trust about how to challenge the administration of the trust by the current trustees. This involved the non-UK charity eventually receiving the largest donation in their history.